Under Suspicion
by cleotheo
Summary: When a mysterious accident at the Burrow leaves Hermione unconscious in hospital, Harry and Ron find out a secret about their friend. But the main question Draco wants answering is what exactly happened to Hermione?
1. Prologue

**A/N – New story time. Under Suspicion has 14 chapters in total, and updates will be the normal Monday, Wednesday and Friday. **

**This prologue is set at the end of sixth year, and merely sets the scene for the story. The story then flips to directly after the end of the war, and picks up from there. There will be a few subtle differences to the books, mainly two of my favourite characters (Snape and Fred) surviving the final battle.**

* * *

**Prologue.**

As Hermione Granger passed by her best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, in the Gryffindor common room she sighed as she heard the topic of conversation. Yet again Harry and Ron were discussing Harry's theory that Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater. Hermione knew for a fact that the blond Slytherin did indeed have the Dark Mark, however she also knew the full story behind it. Unfortunately she wasn't at liberty to discuss the subject with her friends so when the topic of Draco came up she normally excused herself. Harry of course thought she was just burying her head in the sand and refusing to see what was really happening, but really she was just making sure she didn't say anything that would arouse her friend's suspicions.

"I'm off to the library," She called to the duo as she passed by them. "Madam Pince has given me permission to stay late, so there's no need to wait up for me."

"You study far too much," Ron replied, rolling his eyes at the brunette witch.

"It's better than not studying enough," She shot back pointedly.

Hermione's response had both Harry and Ron lowering their heads in shame as they both knew they didn't study half as much as they should. Hermione's mentioning of the pair studying habits caused enough of a distraction for her to slip out of Gryffindor Tower without further fuss.

Instead of heading to the library, Hermione headed off in the opposite direction until she reached the Room of Requirements. Checking no-one was around she summoned up what she wanted and slipped inside the room. The room was decorated like a cosy flat with a large sofa placed before the roaring fire and a bed over in the corner of the room. The furniture was the same as it always was so Hermione paid it little attention as she walked over to the sofa. When she reached the sofa she peered over the back and found Draco Malfoy lying on it with his eyes closed.

Draco was Hermione's secret boyfriend, hence how she knew all about his mark. The pair had first became friendly in fourth year when they'd been forced to work on an Arithmancy project together. They'd actually worked surprisingly well together and they'd struck up a friendship. The friendship had soon given way to romance and by the end of fourth year the pair had become a couple, although they hadn't told anyone considering they both knew Hermione's friends and Draco's father wouldn't approve of their relationship.

"Hey," Draco greeted tonelessly as he opened his grey eyes when he sensed Hermione watching him.

Hermione sighed at how tired and defeated the Slytherin looked. When they'd first become friendly in fourth year Draco had been so lively and vibrant, but she'd watched as this year he'd become a shadow of his former self. She knew her boyfriend had received the mark as punishment for Lucius ending up in Azkaban at the end of the previous school year. She also knew that Voldemort was threatening Narcissa's life in order to get Draco to do something for him this year. However, Draco refused to be drawn on what his task for Voldemort was. He didn't want to put Hermione in any danger by telling her about the task, in his opinion he was putting her in enough danger by not being strong enough to walk away from her.

"How long have you been here?" Hermione asked as she moved around to sit on the sofa.

"I've only been waiting for five minutes or so," Draco replied, not telling Hermione he'd actually been in the Room of Requirements all day working on completing his task for The Dark Lord.

When Hermione sat down on the sofa, Draco sat up and moved along so that he could put his arm around his girlfriend. Hermione happily snuggled into Draco, but it soon became apparent that something was bothering her boyfriend. Even though he was holding her, she could feel that Draco was anything but relaxed.

"What's wrong?" She asked, looking up and finding Draco watching her with a sad look on his face.

"It's time," Draco sighed. "I've nearly finished my task for The Dark Lord. Well, I've finished the part I can do."

"I wish you would tell me what he wants you to do," Hermione said gently. "You know I won't hate you Draco, I love you."

"I love you too," Draco replied, smiling at his girlfriend. "But you knowing won't help anything."

"Please," Hermione begged. "I understand I can't help, and that you can't go to the Order for help, but please let me be here for you. I can listen, and I won't judge."

Draco looked at Hermione, trying to decide if he should confide in her or not. Despite her promise not to hate him he was terrified that if she knew the truth that she would turn away from him. He was confident he was going to lose her within a few days anyway, and he didn't want to lose her any sooner than he had to. However, he desperately wanted to talk to someone and Hermione was the perfect person to bare his soul to.

"He wants me to kill Dumbledore," Draco finally admitted in a small voice. "I've been fixing a set of vanishing cabinets and sometime soon he's going to use them to let Death Eaters into the school. The day he does that is the day I'm supposed to kill Dumbledore."

Hermione gasped at the revelation. She knew Draco wasn't an angel, but she also knew he wasn't a killer. No matter what sort of hold Voldemort had on him, she couldn't picture him killing Dumbledore. However she knew if he failed in his task that Voldemort wouldn't think twice about killing Draco for his failure.

"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked quietly.

"I have no idea," Draco replied as he shook his head despondently. "If I fail him, he's going to kill my mother and then me, but I'm not a killer Hermione. I might not like Dumbledore, but I don't think I can kill the man in cold blood."

"Is there no-one else that could help you?" Hermione asked. "What about one of the other Death Eaters that he'll be letting into the school?"

Again Draco shook his head. "One of those will be Aunt Bella. She's being sent to ensure I do what I'm supposed to. She won't help me."

"What about Snape?" Hermione pressed on, determined to find someone that could help her boyfriend. "Granted, I'm not sure which side he's on, but I do know he cares about you. Harry said he overheard Snape telling you he made an unbreakable vow with your mother. Can that not help?"

"That will turn Severus into a killer," Draco whispered. "He's promised Mother to look out for me, and if the time comes and I can't complete my task he's also promised to do that for me. I don't want him to have to kill Dumbledore, he doesn't deserve to be labelled a killer because of me."

"This isn't your fault, Draco," Hermione said sternly. "This is all Voldemort's fault. He was the one who initiated a scared sixteen year old boy into his ranks and gave him an impossible task. One day, when he's gone, the truth will come out and everyone will know how he threatened the life of your mother in order to get you to do his bidding."

"You genuinely believe there'll be a day when he's gone?" Draco asked curiously. He hoped that one day Voldemort would be no more, but he wasn't sure it was going to happen.

"I do," Hermione nodded. "And when that day comes, you and I are going to tell the world about us. We are going to be happy Draco, I just know it."

"I wish it was that simple Hermione," Draco sighed. "There's nothing I want more than to be with you for the rest of my life, but we have to accept that may never happen. First, I have to survive not completing the task I was set, then we both have to survive long enough for Potter and the Order to find a way to defeat The Dark Lord."

"I know it could be a long way off, but I have faith we can survive what's heading our way," Hermione said determinedly.

Draco had to smile at Hermione's optimism. From where he was sitting the chances of them both surviving the war were slim. He especially didn't think he had much chance of surviving the war, he'd be lucky to survive the rest of the year.

"That's not all," He said, unbuttoning his shirt sleeve and rolling it back until the horrible black mark on his arm was visible. "There's this. Even if I survive the war, I'm a marked Death Eater. If I'm not killed in all likelihood I'll end up in Azkaban."

"I promise I will not let that happen," Hermione told her boyfriend. "I will fight for you, and I will make sure the whole world know the true story of your mark."

Draco smiled sadly at his girlfriend. "I wish things were as simple as you want them to be." He doubted even the true story of his mark would save him from a stint in Azkaban.

"Okay, maybe things aren't as simple as I would like," Hermione admitted. "But things aren't quite as bleak as you like to think either. To be honest neither of us knows what the future holds, or what will even happen in the next few years."

"True," Draco nodded. "But I want you to promise me one thing. If anything happens to me, I want you to move on and live your life. Also, if I end up in Azkaban, you're to walk away. I will not having people turning against you because you're sticking by a convicted Death Eater. I want you to be happy Hermione, and that might mean you have to be with someone else."

Hermione shook her head stubbornly. "No. You're my happy ending Draco, I want to be with you."

"That might not be possible," Draco said softly as he cupped Hermione's cheek in his hand. "Please Hermione, I want you to promise that if things don't go our way you'll move on and find happiness elsewhere."

"I will on one condition," Hermione replied. "If we both survive the war and you don't go to Azkaban, we get married."

"Are you proposing to me?" Draco smiled.

"Yeah, I guess I am," Hermione smiled back at her boyfriend. "So what do you say, do we have a deal?"

"We have a deal," Draco replied. "We'll either get married, or you'll move on and be happy."

"How do you fancy celebrating our engagement?" Hermione asked with a saucy grin. "I told Harry and Ron I was going to be late back from the library, so I'm all yours for a few hours."

"Just the way I like you," Draco grinned, as he gently connected their lips.

After exchanging a few steamy kisses on the sofa the pair made their way across to the bed in the corner where they proceeded to remove their clothes and spend a few precious hours making love. As it turned out their evening together was the last one they managed before the Death Eaters entered Hogwarts and the war well and truly got under way.


	2. Chapter 1

**One Year Later.**

They'd done it, they'd actually defeated Voldemort. Hermione was barely able to process what had just occurred at Hogwarts. To be honest, everything was still a bit of a blur. Less than an hour ago she'd been devastated to see Harry's body, signalling both the loss of the war and her hopes for the future. Then somehow Harry was on his feet and battling Voldemort, before eventually emerging victorious. Of course there'd been losses on both sides, but Hermione was very aware that Draco was still alive. Currently the blond wizard was over the other side of the Great Hall with his parents, while Hermione was with the Weasleys.

"What happens now?" She asked Harry as he sat down in the seat next to her.

"I have no idea," Harry replied. "But we can worry about that in the morning. For now all I want to do is sleep."

Hermione could fully understand Harry's wish for sleep after all they'd endured this last year, but she knew sleep wasn't what she needed. Before she could even think of sleeping she needed to speak to Draco. She knew their deal could still go either way, but they'd both survived and that was a start.

After Harry had disappeared off to Gryffindor Tower with Ginny, Ron followed shortly afterwards and Hermione slipped away from the Weasleys. Making her way across the Great Hall she managed to catch Draco's eye as she went out of the doors. Slipping into an alcove opposite the doors, she didn't have long to wait before Draco made his way out of the Great Hall.

"Draco." Poking her head out of the alcove she quietly beckoned her boyfriend to her.

Draco immediately rushed into the alcove, and without even bothering to say hello he swept her up in an intense kiss. Having not kissed him for a year, Hermione passionately returned the embrace. Soon the need to breath ended the kiss, but the pair remained wrapped in each other's arms as they stared at each other in the shadows of the alcove.

"You look a mess," Hermione said.

"You're hardly looking great yourself," Draco shot back. "But you've never looked lovelier," He added seriously. "I thought I'd lost you Hermione. I thought my aunt was going to kill you right in front of me."

"Don't." Hermione shook her head, not wanting to think about her torture at the hands of Bellatrix. To be honest she thought the worst thing had been the fact that Draco was forced to watch and he couldn't do a thing about it. His haunted expression had been far worse than anything Bellatrix had done to her.

"Sorry," Draco apologised, not wanting to upset Hermione. "I'm just so pleased you're safe."

"I'm pleased you're safe," Hermione replied. "I was so worried that something would have happened to you after you left school last year."

"I'll have to tell you about it sometime, providing I get the chance," Draco said.

"You'll get the chance," Hermione reassured her boyfriend.

"I hope so," Draco sighed. "But right now, I have to be getting back. We're heading into the Ministry with some Aurors."

"Are you being arrested?" Hermione asked. "Is there anything I can do?"

"We're not being arrested yet, we're going of our own free will. But my guess is that by the morning we'll have been charged and be kept in custody," Draco replied sadly. "I'm sure you can keep up with what's happening through your friends. But just remember what we agreed. If I go to Azkaban, you're going to walk away."

"And you just remember what I said," Hermione retorted. "When you don't go to Azkaban, I want you to marry me."

"That's what's been keeping me going," Draco admitted quietly. "The thought of you being my wife was what got me through the really bad days."

"It'll happen, you'll see," Hermione smiled.

Draco smiled back at Hermione before giving her one final kiss. "I really have to go. I don't want them to think I'm running away."

"Good luck," Hermione whispered as Draco reluctantly let go of her and backed out of the alcove.

Hermione remained in the alcove for a while longer and from her hidden position she witnessed the Malfoys being escorted from the Great Hall by several Aurors. As he passed the alcove, Draco turned his head slightly and their eyes met before he was ushered out of the school. Hermione watched him go with sadness, before she turned and made her way up to Gryffindor Tower. Hopefully by the morning things would be more settled and she would have a better idea of what was going on with Draco.

* * *

Draco stood in his bedroom at the Manor, hardly able to believe he was back home so soon. Of course he wasn't yet guaranteed to be staying at home, but the prospect of going to Azkaban was looking pretty slim. The previous day when Voldemort had first fallen and he and his family had agreed to go into the Ministry, he'd genuinely believed he was going to end up locked up for the rest of his life. However the Aurors seemed to be fully aware of exactly what methods Voldemort had used to get him to do as he'd wished. Draco's interview hadn't been anywhere near as brutal as what he'd been expecting, in fact he was fairly certain that the Aurors felt sorry for him.

It wasn't until after the Aurors released him and Narcissa that Draco discovered that Lucius was doing a deal with them. Once they were home, albeit it under strict regulations and supervision from a couple of Aurors, Narcissa explained to Draco that Lucius was offering them a deal where he would tell them everything he knew and help them as much as possible if they made all the charges against Draco and Narcissa go away. Draco was incredibly touched by his father's deal, and he knew it was Lucius's way of trying to make up for the fact he'd dragged them into the war in the first place by siding with Voldemort all those years ago.

Draco still wasn't sure his father would be coming home, so he decided to have a quick shower and get changed before he went to find his mother. He knew Narcissa would need his support, especially if Lucius was going to end up in Azkaban.

After his shower, Draco headed off in search of his mother. He found Narcissa in the main living room, with one of the Aurors hovering in the doorway. There was currently two Aurors in the Manor, and they were making sure neither Draco nor Narcissa were using dark magic or doing anything untoward.

"Ah Draco, come and sit down," Narcissa said, gesturing for her son to join her on the sofa. "I'm looking at blueprints of the Manor. I want to destroy a few rooms that hold bad memories, and I'm checking the plans to make sure I do it right."

"Have you asked Father about this?" Draco asked.

"It was his idea," Narcissa replied. "If we're going to start afresh, we need to wipe out the bad memories. This is our home Draco, and I don't want all the happy memories to be overshadowed by certain things that happened here in the last year. We are going to transform the Manor into a warm, loving home."

"I'll help with whatever you want," Draco said.

"You're going to help by going out and living your life," Narcissa told her son. "The second we know what's going to happen, you're going to go and get yourself a fiancée. I'm dying to meet her properly."

Draco smiled at his mother's attempts to reassure him that she and Lucius were accepting his choices. During the last year, Draco had confided in them about Hermione and he'd told them all about the deal they'd made. Both Lucius and Narcissa had been shocked to find out he was involved with a muggleborn, but with everything they were going through they agreed that Draco's happiness was their first priority. They were perfectly honest and admitted that it would take some getting used to having a muggleborn in the family, but they promised that if it happened then they would welcome her with open arms.

"I'm not getting carried away just yet," Draco replied. "I want to know I'm truly free before I go around getting engaged."

"You will be," Narcissa reassured her son. "You just have to have a bit of faith. Your father won't let you down, not again."

"I know Father is doing his best, but we both know everything isn't in his control," Draco cautioned his mother. "I'd rather wait and know what was happening before I get in touch with Hermione."

"Suit yourself," Narcissa replied, knowing it wasn't worth arguing the point since her son was so stubborn. "Now, help me check these plans so I'm sure I've got the right rooms. I don't want to end up destroying one of the good rooms."

Draco knew his mother would be unbearable if she destroyed a room she liked, so he happily helped her go over the plans. As they did so Narcissa told him of some of her other plans for the Manor and Draco had to admit it sounded lovely. Hopefully if things went well with his father he would get to see the finished result.

* * *

Hermione stood looking out of the kitchen window of The Burrow, absentmindedly chopping the vegetables Molly had asked her to prepare. It had now been two days since the final battle and Hermione still wasn't sure what was going on with Draco. Kingsley had mentioned that Narcissa and Draco were back at the Manor with a guard while Lucius remained in the Ministry. However, he refused to be drawn on what Lucius was still doing at the Ministry or what decisions had been made about the family. Hermione was guessing things were still up in the air, otherwise she was fairly certain that Draco would have wrote to her.

"Thank you for your help," Molly said as she entered the kitchen and drew Hermione's attention back to the kitchen.

"It's my pleasure," Hermione smiled. "I'll do anything to help."

"I know you will, dear. And it's much appreciated." Molly smiled back at Hermione, but the younger witch noticed that it didn't reach her eyes. Then again with everything she'd been through lately it wasn't surprising that she wasn't exactly happy.

"Are we making casserole?" Hermione checked.

"It's the easiest thing," Molly said. "That way people can grab a bowl whenever they come back. And if we make some extra I can take some up to Hogwarts."

"Is George still refusing to leave?" Hermione asked.

George's twin brother Fred had been crushed by a piece of falling rubble during the final battle and he was currently in a coma. Madam Pomfrey was still up at Hogwarts dealing with the more severely wounded in her hospital wing and she'd made it clear that Fred wasn't strong enough to be moved to St Mungo's just yet. All the family had taken turns visiting him, but George was adamant he was staying by his twin's bedside until his life was out of danger.

"He's still up there. But at least Bill and Charlie are up there with him," Molly replied. Bill and Charlie were still up at Hogwarts as part of the team rebuilding the school and ensuring the wards were re-erected.

"How is Fred?" Hermione asked as she handed the vegetables over to Molly and began to chop the chicken into smaller chunks.

"Poppy says he's still critical," Molly sighed. "We're still not sure he'll survive."

"You should be up there with him," Hermione insisted. "I can make the casserole. You go and be with Fred, and I'll take care of things here."

"Are you sure?" Molly checked. "I want to be with Fred, but I've got the rest of the family to be thinking about."

"We can all cope," Hermione reassured the older witch. "Half the time everyone's up at the school anyway. Go and be with Fred. I'll be up later with some casserole."

"Thank you, Hermione. You're an angel." Molly gave Hermione a quick peck on the cheek before she darted off to get changed and head off to Hogwarts.

Once Molly was gone, Hermione finished making the casserole as she let her mind wander to Draco yet again. She'd just placed the large dishes into the oven when an owl swooped in through the window and dropped a letter onto the bench in front of her. It then flew straight away before she'd even had a chance to pick the letter up and see who it was off. When she did pick the letter up she recognised the writing as Draco's. Tearing the letter open she quickly read his small but promising note.

The note asked if they could meet that night and gave an address of a penthouse in London. The note gave nothing away about what was happening with Draco, but he did say he was doing okay and he was looking forward to seeing her. Hoping the note meant something good, Hermione folded it up and put it in her pocket just as the floo network sounded and Harry and Ron entered the house.

While Hermione had been helping Molly with the family and helping Madam Pomfrey up at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron had been working with the Aurors. Voldemort's defeat didn't automatically mean the Death Eaters were defunct as there was a lot of them that escaped when they realised their master was no longer with them. Once things calmed down she knew Harry and Ron intended to apply for official Auror training, but for now they were happy to help in any way they could.

"How are things coming along?" Hermione asked.

"Okay," Harry replied. "Although we've just come into a big pile of information. With what we now know there'll be very few Death Eaters able to escape us."

"Someone's turned on them," Hermione guessed. She couldn't think of any other way the Aurors could have gotten so much useful information other than a Death Eater switching sides.

"Lucius Malfoy," Ron told his friend. "He's sold out the entire hoard of missing Death Eaters. He's even agreed to help us in tracking them down."

"Why would he do that?" Hermione asked.

"He's done a deal," Harry answered. "In exchange for this information, there'll be no charges pressed against Malfoy or Narcissa. Although to be honest, I don't think there would have been anyway. If it wasn't for Narcissa I wouldn't be here, she was the reason I was able to fool Voldemort and take him by surprise. And as for Malfoy, both his parents gave dozens of memories that proved that Voldemort had him backed into a corner and he was pretty much forced to do what he did."

"Have you seen the memories?" Hermione questioned.

"Nah." Ron shook his head. "Kingsley wouldn't let us look at them. But he assures us they're genuine and are enough to prove that Malfoy was threatened and coerced into being a Death Eater."

"And you two accept that?" Hermione asked. Her friends reactions were taking her by surprise as she'd always assumed they would be fighting to ensure Draco ended up in Azkaban.

"We have no choice," Harry answered with a shrug. "I can't say I'm thrilled with Malfoy getting away with everything he did, but I can say from the flashes of Voldemort's thoughts I got throughout the war that he seemed to be an unwilling Death Eater. And I have to admit, he couldn't kill Dumbledore in sixth year."

"The information we're getting off Lucius is more important than Malfoy," Ron added. "That's not to say we won't be keeping an eye on him once we're Aurors. If he steps out of line, we'll be waiting to throw him in Azkaban."

"Nice to see you're keeping an open mind there Ronald," Hermione snapped. Obviously their understanding only went so far, and it would appear that they weren't quite ready to move past everything that had happened.

"I'm just saying what everyone at the Ministry is thinking," Ron retorted. "Lucius's information is buying his freedom, and if he messes up again there won't be any second chances."

"What if he doesn't mess up?" Hermione questioned.

"He will," Ron replied confidently. "It's just a matter of time."

Harry nodded in agreement before the two wizards made their way into the kitchen in search of food. Hermione told them there was casserole in the oven, before she headed off to the room she shared with Ginny to get changed. Once she was changed she grabbed one of the pots of casserole to take up to Hogwarts. Once she was done at the school she would then go and meet Draco and they could discuss the future. A future that should include a wedding, unless he was going to go back on their deal.


	3. Chapter 2

After spending a couple of hours up at Hogwarts, Hermione left the school and headed for the address Draco had given to her in his note. Since Hermione didn't exactly know where the address was located, she used the floo network to travel to her destination.

When she stepped out of the fire at the penthouse, Hermione found herself in a large, spacious living room. The room was decorated in neutral shades of cream and beige, but it was brightened up by several nice pictures on the wall and brightly coloured cushions on the large white sofa. One of the walls also contained a massive window that offered a spectacular view of London.

Hermione quickly took in the gorgeous penthouse, but all she really wanted to see was Draco. Luckily her wishes were soon granted as Hermione had no sooner thought about her boyfriend when he appeared in the doorway to the living room. Hermione grinned widely at the sight of Draco as she rushed forward to embrace him.

"I've missed you," Hermione said, throwing herself into her boyfriend's arms.

"I've missed you too," Draco replied as he wrapped Hermione in his arms.

The hug lasted a few minutes, before the pair's lips met and they indulged in a heated kiss. Eventually that also came to an end and the couple looked at each other with happy smiles.

"We did it," Hermione grinned. "We survived and now we're free to be together."

"I take it that means you know what happened with the Ministry," Draco said as he led Hermione over to the sofa and pulled her down beside him.

"Harry and Ron mentioned your father's deal with the Ministry," Hermione said.

"I bet they weren't impressed," Draco snorted.

"I think they're torn," Hermione admitted. "They value the information your father is offering the Aurors, but they aren't completely happy about the situation."

"Luckily it wasn't anything to do with them," Draco said. "I'm sure if they had their way the whole family would be in Azkaban."

"So what is the situation exactly?" Hermione questioned. "Are you completely free, or are there restrictions on you."

"I'm completely free," Draco answered. "But the Ministry have made it clear they'll be watching me closely and one wrong move will result in me ending up in Azkaban."

"That won't be an issue," Hermione smiled.

"Of course it won't," Draco agreed. "I won't be doing anything that will result in me being away from you. Now we can be together properly, and I won't let anyone separate us again."

"I hope this is leading where I think it is," Hermione smiled mischievously.

"Maybe," Draco smirked.

Reaching into his pocket, Draco pulled out a small black box and turned to his girlfriend. Flipping the box lid open he smiled when Hermione gasped at the sight of a beautiful diamond and emerald ring nestled in the box. The ring had belonged to his grandmother and Lucius had given him it earlier that day. Draco knew the ring signified that Lucius was accepting Hermione and wouldn't be causing any problems.

"Hermione Granger, will you marry me?"

"Of course I will," Hermione replied, throwing herself at Draco for the second time that day.

Draco happily embraced his new fiancée, before he pulled the ring out of the box and gently slid it onto Hermione's finger. Since the ring was magical, it automatically adjusted so it fit Hermione perfectly.

"It's gorgeous," Hermione said, taking a good look at the delicate ring. "It must have cost a fortune."

"It is worth quite a bit, but I'm not sure how much exactly," Draco said. "It belonged to my grandmother. Father gave it to me this afternoon, it's his way of showing his approval."

"Your father approves of us?" Hermione questioned disbelievingly. She wasn't even aware Lucius and Narcissa knew of their relationship, let alone approved of it.

"I told my parents about us a few months ago," Draco explained. "They've both been really supportive and they've promised to make you feel welcome."

"It sounds like their experiences in the war have changed them," Hermione remarked.

"They changed everyone," Draco said seriously. "I'm sure you've been affected by what you went through, just the same as they have. I know I've changed these last few years."

"I guess the war has changed a lot of people's lives," Hermione agreed. "Although I don't want to talk about that now. I was so scared that this day would never happen. Now all I want to do is concentrate on us and our future together."

"And here was me thinking you were so confident this day would come," Draco replied. "You certainly appeared confident in sixth year when we made our deal."

"I was trying to remain positive," Hermione admitted. "I was so scared about what was going to happen, but I didn't want you to see that. You were so sure that things were going to go badly for us, I didn't want you to know I feared the exact same thing. I was hoping my positivity would help you get through the bad days."

"That's exactly what it did do," Draco told his fiancée. "Your belief that we would one day be together was what got me through some of my toughest moments. I may not have always believed we would get here, but I always believed in you."

Hermione smiled at Draco and before the conversation turned too serious she leant forward and connected their lips again. This time the kissing took a more heated turn very quickly and Hermione slid herself along the sofa so she was pressed right against her fiancé.

"Why don't you show me the bedroom," Hermione suggested when the couple briefly tore their lips apart.

"Are you sure?" Draco asked, not wanting to rush Hermione into bed.

"I'm sure," Hermione reassured Draco as she peppered kisses on his face and neck. "It's been over a year Draco, and I miss you. I've thought about you so many times this last year, and it's been driving me mad."

"I've been thinking about you too," Draco replied, standing up and pulling Hermione to her feet. "I've missed you so much."

"It's time to show me just how much you've missed me," Hermione told her boyfriend.

Draco smiled at Hermione as he grabbed her hand and led her into the bedroom. Hermione paid little attention to the large room decorated in soothing blues. All she was interested in was being with Draco and making use of the king size bed that dominated the bedroom.

Clothes were frantically shed by the amorous couple, and within minutes they were both naked. Draco briefly stopped to admire the body he hadn't seen for so long, as did Hermione. However the admiring didn't last long before touching became involved and the moment their hands brushed over each other's skins they couldn't keep their hands to themselves. In a tangle of limbs the kissing couple fell back onto the bed, locked together in a heated embrace.

Wordlessly the couple knew just what they needed and within seconds Draco had Hermione pinned underneath him and he was buried in her wet heat. The couple took a few moments to compose themselves before they began to move together. Even though it had been over a year since they'd last slept together their love making was instinctual and they both knew exactly what to do to drive the other one into oblivion.

After their first, slightly hurried first session, the couple spent the next couple of hours exploring each other's bodies and making love at a more languid pace. Eventually they collapsed back onto the bed and Draco pulled Hermione into his arms as they began to discuss the future.

"How quick do you think we can get married?" Hermione asked, tracing patterns on Draco's chest with her fingernails.

"We can do it as quick as you want," Draco answered. He was rather pleased that Hermione seemed keen on a quick wedding as that was the route he was hoping to go down. "All we need is to get the paperwork in order and tell people about us. Obviously my parents know, but you'll have to meet them and then there's your friends and your parents to inform of the situation."

"Actually my parents aren't an issue at the moment," Hermione replied quietly, before she proceeded to tell Draco about how she obliviated her parents and sent them to Australia the previous summer.

"That's terrible," Draco gasped. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there to support you. But I promise we will find them and get their memories back for you."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Hermione said, smiling up at Draco. "But I think we need to have everything in order before we go looking for my parents. It could take a while, and I would rather wait until things were calm here before we left."

"It's your call," Draco told his fiancée. "We can go and find them whenever you're ready. But do you not want them at the wedding?"

"I would love it, but that means we won't be getting married for a year or so, maybe even three or four. I want to marry you as soon as possible Draco. This war has shown me how fragile life is, and I don't intend on wasting time when we could be together."

"Okay." Draco nodded, fully understanding Hermione's desire to make the most of life and their time together. "We can arrange to get the marriage license as soon as possible, and that just leaves telling your friends."

"How long does it take to get a marriage license?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know," Draco shrugged. "But the Ministry are slow paced at the best of times, and the whole place is in a bit of a state at the minute. I think it could be a couple of months before we get our licence. I don't suppose issuing wedding licences is going to be their top priority at the moment."

"I don't suppose it will. But a few months is quick enough," Hermione replied. "In fact a few months could be just what we need. It gives me time to find the right moment to tell people our news."

"What's wrong with right now?" Draco asked, wondering if she was worried about how her friends would react when she told them she was marrying a Death Eater.

"It just feels a bit insensitive," Hermione admitted quietly as she sat up in bed. "I'm so happy and I've got so much to look forward to, but people are still grieving. Lives were lost in the war, and the Weasleys still don't know if Fred will pull through. I don't want to be bragging about my perfect life while the Weasleys lives are in turmoil."

"We can wait until a more appropriate time," Draco reassured his girlfriend. "Until we have the marriage license, we can't get married anyway."

"I just want to wait until things are more settled," Hermione said.

"Hermione, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I understand," Draco told his fiancée. "Now isn't the right time to be sharing our news, not after everything that has just happened. Waiting a month or two won't kill us."

"I know," Hermione sighed. "I know waiting is the right thing to do, but part of me wants to tell everyone now. At least that way we can be together properly. As it is all we'll get is a few snatched hours like this."

"That doesn't have to be the case," Draco said. "You can move into the penthouse. You can tell your friends you've found somewhere to live, and while I technically still live at the Manor I can spend most of my time here. That way we can be together and we can tell people when the time is right."

"I love it," Hermione beamed excitedly. "It's a perfect plan."

"Well, I am pretty perfect," Draco grinned cockily.

"You're pretty big headed," Hermione retorted, rolling her eyes at Draco.

Despite the retort, Hermione couldn't help but smile at Draco's attitude. It had been a long time since she'd seen the cockier side of her boyfriend and she was thrilled his confidence was retuning. Throughout sixth year he'd been seriously anxious and hadn't been his normal self, so Hermione was thrilled his old spark was returning. She knew there would be times he would still be haunted by the war, as would she, but that was something they could deal with in the future. Right now she intended to spend their time together revelling in their reunion and their official engagement. Talk of the war and their experiences could wait, right now it was all about them.


	4. Chapter 3

With a dejected sigh, Draco stood up from the bedside of his comatose godfather, Severus Snape. After the final battle it had been thought that Severus was dead, but when Madam Pomfrey checked him over she found he was in a deep coma due to the venom in Nagini's bite. He'd immediately been rushed to St Mungo's where the healers had been working hard on finding a cure.

Since Severus had no family, Lucius paid to have his friend transferred to the private wing of St Mungo's, which was where he was still residing six weeks after the end of the war. Unfortunately even the private healers Lucius had hired had failed to find a solution to the coma Severus was in. For the time being he was stuck in his coma, with no sign of recovery been on the horizon.

Draco had been visiting Severus every day since he'd officially been pardoned by the Ministry, and every day he felt guiltier for what his godfather had done for him. In the end it had been Severus that killed Dumbledore, and even though he'd later confided in Draco that Dumbledore was dying and had asked him to kill him and ensure Draco didn't have to, Draco still felt bad. He knew how much it had affected Severus, killing a man he respected and admired for so many years.

"We will find a cure," Draco promised his godfather, before he turned and left the private room Severus was ensconced in.

As he left the hospital he vaguely wondered if Hermione was there visiting Fred. Two weeks ago the redhead had been strong enough to move from Hogwarts to the hospital and the signs were looking as though he could be waking up any day now. However, Hermione still hadn't told her friends about them yet so he doubted it would go down well if he found out where Fred was and poked his head in looking for his fiancée. Instead Draco headed back to the penthouse, which was where he found Hermione.

"Hey," Hermione smiled at her fiancé as he stepped from the floo network. "I thought you were off to see Blaise this weekend."

"I am," Draco replied. The previous week he'd gotten a letter from his friend, Blaise Zabini, asking if he fancied popping to see him in Italy for the weekend. Since Draco hadn't seen Blaise since sixth year and he wanted to tell him about Hermione, he'd jumped at the offer of visiting his friend.

"So what are you doing here?" Hermione probed.

"I just wanted to say bye," Draco shrugged.

Hermione studied her fiancé and noticed the haunted expression in his grey eyes. She recognised the expression as one of guilt and she knew he'd been to see Snape again. Despite Hermione and his parents insisting he wasn't to blame for Snape being in a coma, Draco still tended to feel guilty about his godfather's predicament.

"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?" Hermione checked as she got up and hugged her boyfriend.

"I do," Draco nodded. "And I know it's not my fault Severus was bitten by Nagini, but he had to do the most awful thing in order to protect me. I feel bad that he became a killer because of me."

Hermione knew nothing she could say would alleviate the guilt Draco felt over Dumbledore's death so she settled for hugging her fiancé even tighter. When she finally let him go she smiled brightly at him and changed the subject back to his upcoming visit with Blaise.

"I'm leaving in an hour or so," Draco told Hermione. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me? I'm sure Blaise will want to meet you properly."

"You go and enjoy your time with your friend," Hermione replied. "I'm sure I'll meet Blaise soon enough, especially now the marriage licence has come through and we can set a date."

"As long as you're sure."

"I am," Hermione nodded. "Besides, I have plans of my own. Since we're going to be getting married soon, I thought it was time I went and told Harry and the Weasleys what was happening."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stick around?" Draco asked, wary of leaving Hermione to deal with her friends all by herself.

"I'll be fine on my own," Hermione answered. "It might actually be better if you're not around. I've got the whole weekend to talk to them and explain about our relationship. By the time you get back on Monday morning, everything will be sorted."

"If you're sure," Draco said, still not convinced he should leave Hermione alone.

"I am. Now go home, get packed and go to Italy," Hermione ordered her fiancé. "And have fun, but not too much fun."

Draco chuckled in response and after giving his fiancée a kiss goodbye he flooed to the Manor where he proceeded to finish his packing for his weekend away. With his packing sorted, Draco headed downstairs in search of his mother. He knew Lucius was at the Ministry working with the Aurors, but Narcissa was in the middle of redesigning the entire Manor and she could be anywhere in the vast house. Draco found his mother in the library and after telling her he was off he grabbed his bag before he headed to Blaise's flat in Milan.

When Draco arrived in Milan he was greeted enthusiastically by Blaise. While the pair hadn't been particularly close in their early school days they'd struck up a strong friendship in their last few years and apart from Hermione, Blaise was the only person who really supported Draco in sixth year. After throwing his bag into the spare room, Draco was dragged out to a nearby bar by Blaise so they could catch up.

"I take it this is your regular bar," Draco remarked as the pair were served super quick and Blaise led the way into the V.I.P area without anyone batting an eyelid.

"Oh yes, this is the home of the one and only Blaise Zabini," Blaise grinned. "I'm well known in these parts."

"I hate to think what for," Draco chuckled. Blaise had always been a big hit with the girls back in school, and from the flirtatious looks he was throwing in the direction of every pretty woman it would appear he hadn't changed.

"So, how's your life?" Blaise asked seriously. "I have to admit I'm relieved that you didn't end up in Azkaban."

"You and me both," Draco replied. "I genuinely thought that's where I would end up, and to be honest part of me thinks it's what I deserve. After everything I did, I don't know if I deserve to be a free man."

"Don't start with the guilt trip, Draco," Blaise warned, giving his friend a firm stare. "We both know he forced you into serving him by threatening the life of your mother. You were doing what you could to save her life."

"Even so, my actions have consequences," Draco sighed. "I was involved the night Dumbledore died. I let Death Eaters into the school and someone ended up being savaged by that bloody werewolf Greyback."

"You weren't to know that maniac was going to show up," Blaise pointed out.

"He did, and I have to live with the guilt of what he did," Draco replied.

"Did he turn someone into a werewolf?" Blaise questioned. He'd heard that Greyback had attacked a member of the Order, but he couldn't remember hearing that he'd turned them into a werewolf.

"No, he's just badly scarred," Draco answered.

"See, it could have been worse," Blaise said, trying to look on the bright side. "You can't beat yourself up about this Draco. You'll go mad if you can't leave the past behind you and move on. What you need is some fun. I know, before you leave I'll make sure you have the time of your life. I know some single witches that would go mad for you."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Draco told his friend. "I'm off the market. I'm actually getting married soon."

"Married?" Blaise questioned, spitting his firewhisky out in shock at the news his friend was engaged. "Who are you marrying, and more importantly why? Why on earth are you tying yourself to one witch at such a young age? There's a whole world of women out there, give a few a try before you pick one."

"I don't need to try a few women before picking one, I've already found the one," Draco replied. "I don't need to sleep about and wait until I'm older to know Hermione is the perfect woman for me."

"Back up a bit. Hermione? Hermione, as in Hermione Granger, Hermione?" Blaise asked with wide eyes.

"Yes." Draco grinned at his friend's shock. "I'm engaged to Hermione Granger."

"Holy crap," Blaise muttered. "That's a shock and a half."

"You'll get used to it," Draco chuckled as he took a swig of his firewhisky while he waited for Blaise to get his head around the identity of his future wife.

"Were you two shagging back in school?" Blaise asked when he finally composed himself.

"I wouldn't put it quite like that, but we did get together in school," Draco answered. "She stuck by me through everything, and now we're getting married."

"I just thought she was a lesbian," Blaise tutted.

"You what? Why would you think she was gay?" Draco questioned in confusion.

"I kept asking her out and she kept knocking me back," Blaise explained with a shrug. "She never responded to any of my charms, so I assumed she wasn't interested in men."

"And it never occurred to you that maybe you weren't her type?" Draco asked.

By the look on Blaise's face it was clear that thought hadn't occurred to him. Draco had to laugh at his friend's ego. Trust Blaise to be so sure of his own effect on women that when one didn't automatically fall at his feet he assumed she must be gay.

"Damn, I wasted valuable time on her." Blaise shook his head ruefully. "If I'd known she was with you, I would have backed off. Instead I thought she was a challenge."

"Even though you thought she was gay, you still considered her a challenge?" Draco questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I couldn't be sure of that, it was just one option," Blaise answered. "She might have just been playing hard to get."

"How long did you spend trying to grab her interest, and when was this?" Draco asked, wondering why Hermione had never mentioned Blaise hitting on her back at school. Or even why she didn't mention it in the last few days when he decided to visit his friend.

"It was back in sixth year, just before Christmas," Blaise answered. "I think I asked her out three times."

"Three times," Draco laughed. "You call three times valuable time wasted. I thought you meant you were pursuing her for months."

"Please, I can't spend months chasing after one girl. That would be ridiculous," Blaise snorted. "And for your information I've never been refused three times. In fact I've never been refused more than once by anyone other than Hermione."

"So you have been refused by girls," Draco said with an amused laugh. "And here was me thinking you were a hit with the ladies."

"I am a hit with the ladies," Blaise said defensively. "Some women just like to be wooed. No-one refuses me a second time."

"Apart from Hermione," Draco pointed out.

"Apart from Hermione," Blaise agreed. "But that was only because she was with you. If she'd been single, she would have responded to my charms."

"Luckily for me, I'd already won her over with my charms," Draco smirked.

"Yeah, you're going to have to tell me how you did that," Blaise said. "Let's order some food and you can tell me the whole story. I want to hear all about how you seduced the Gryffindor Princess and how she melted your cold, Slytherin heart."

"You're so ridiculous," Draco laughed as the pair looked over the menus that had appeared on their table at the mention of ordering food.

"I'm just entertaining," Blaise retorted with a grin.

Draco laughed at Blaise yet again and as they ordered he realised how much fun he was having with his friend. A weekend with Blaise was just what he needed to take his mind of Severus and to stop him worrying about how Hermione was getting on with her friends. Right there and then Draco decided that for the rest of the weekend he was just going to relax and have fun, he could worry about the more serious aspect of life when he returned to Britain on Monday morning.


	5. Chapter 4

Narcissa was sitting in the living room, picking out new décor for the master bedroom, when Draco arrived home from his weekend in Italy shortly before lunchtime on Monday morning. Narcissa hadn't been sure if Draco would return to the manor after visiting Blaise or if he would head straight to the penthouse to see Hermione, but she was pleased to see her son had popped in to let her know he was back safely.

"How was your weekend?" Narcissa asked. "And how was Blaise?"

"The weekend was great, and Blaise was Blaise. You know what he's like, he never changes," Draco replied.

"Will he be coming to the wedding?"

"Yeah," Draco replied with a nod. "He's promised to be here the second we set a date."

"Now the licence has come through you'll have to be getting on with that," Narcissa told her son. "I know you and Hermione don't want a big wedding, but you will need some time to prepare. Even the smallest weddings need organising."

"Hopefully we'll be setting the date soon," Draco said. "Hermione was going to tell her friends about us this weekend. Now they know about us we should be able to make some plans."

"What happens if they've reacted badly?" Narcissa asked. "I know Hermione was worried they wouldn't approve."

"It won't affect the wedding," Draco answered. "Hermione was hoping that with a bit of talking they would understand how much we mean to each other. But even if they haven't come round, we'll still be getting married. Hermione was insistent that they won't be ruining our lives."

Narcissa nodded approvingly. "That's good. I guess you're going to go and see her today."

"Yeah, I was thinking I would have lunch with you and head over to the penthouse this afternoon," Draco replied. "I don't know if she'll be around, but if I wait she'll show up eventually."

"I'll get one of the elves to fix some lunch, and you can help me make some final decisions on the décor," Narcissa said, gesturing to the samples and colour charts she had spread over the coffee table. "I was thinking of redoing your wing of the manor as well. I know you'll be moving out with Hermione, but it would be nice for you to have somewhere to stay when the pair of you visit."

While Narcissa sorted out lunch, Draco settled down beside her and started flicking through his mother's decorating paraphernalia. Draco had never thought about redecorating his wing of the manor before, but he thought it could be a good idea. It might be nice to turn the rooms of his wing into somewhere nice for him and Hermione to visit.

One of the family's house elves had just brought lunch and placed it on the coffee table when the sound of the floo network sounded from the nearby floo room. Seconds later Lucius charged into the living room, looking relieved when he spotted Draco.

"What are you doing back so soon?" Narcissa asked her husband. "I thought you were with the Aurors all day."

"I told them I had a family emergency and needed to leave for the afternoon," Lucius replied.

"What family emergency?" Draco interrupted with a scowl. He didn't want Lucius backing down on his deal with the Ministry and them changing their minds about not sending the family to Azkaban.

"I was in the lift when Arthur Weasley entered with a colleague. The two men were talking about Arthur's weekend, and how hectic it had been," Lucius explained. "Apparently on Friday Potter and two of the Weasley kids discovered Hermione unconscious at The Burrow. From what they were saying she's in hospital."

"Why didn't anyone get in touch?" Draco demanded as he jumped to his feet. "She was going to tell them about us, that was why she was there."

"Before we jump to any conclusions, I suggest we go and find out what's happening," Narcissa said calmly. "We'll go to St Mungo's and check on Hermione."

Draco charged out of the living room and practically ran to the fireplace in the floo room. Lucius and Narcissa followed their son and by the time they reached the reception area of St Mungo's, Draco was talking to the receptionist. After finding out where Hermione was, Draco led the way up to the ward where his fiancée was situated.

"We're here to see Hermione Granger," Draco told the mediwitch who was on duty in Hermione's ward.

"She's in the bed at the end of the ward, but it's not really visiting hours," The mediwitch replied.

"Please, she's my fiancée and I've only just found out she was in hospital," Draco pleaded with the mediwitch, praying she wasn't going to be difficult.

Luckily the mediwitch took pity on Draco and she agreed to let the three Malfoys visit with Hermione for a short while. Calling for a colleague to mind the front desk, the mediwitch took the trio onto the ward and led them to where Hermione was lying in the bed at the far end of the long room.

"What happened to her?" Draco asked, gently taking hold of Hermione's hand. "Why isn't she awake?"

"Miss Granger was found at the bottom of some stairs, but it would appear no one was around to witness her fall," The mediwitch answered. "Her injuries included several broken bones, which we've fixed, and severe bruising. She's also suffered a blow to the head, which is why she's still unconscious."

"She hasn't been awake at all?" Lucius questioned in surprise.

The mediwitch shook her head sadly. "No. She was brought in unconscious, and she hasn't woken since she was admitted."

"Will she wake up?" Narcissa asked quietly.

"We don't know," The mediwitch sighed. "Head injuries are hard to predict. She could be unconscious for weeks, or she could wake up without warning. To be honest all we can do is monitor her and make sure there's no internal damage."

"And there's not any internal damage?" Lucius checked.

"No," The mediwitch reassured the concerned family. "The only damage is the bang to her head, and until she wakes up we have no idea what the effects the blow might have done."

"Are you saying she might have brain damage?" Draco asked with wide eyes.

"That's a very slim possibility," The mediwitch replied. "More than likely she'll be fine after some rest. It's really not wise to speculate. All we can do is make sure she's well looked after, and worry about what happens next when she wakes up."

Narcissa smiled politely at the mediwitch and thanked her as she announced she would give the family some time alone with Hermione. Once the mediwitch was gone, Narcissa turned to her husband, who was looking deep in thought.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I don't like it," Lucius replied thoughtfully. "Is it just me or is it suspicious that the day Hermione goes to tell the Weasleys she involved with Draco, she ends up in hospital?"

"It could be coincidence," Narcissa said. "The mediwitch said no-one witnessed her accident. She could have just slipped and fallen down the stairs."

"Or she could have been pushed," Lucius argued. "I just find the whole thing mighty suspicious. And even if there wasn't anything sinister behind her fall, why hasn't anyone contacted Draco?"

"Maybe she hadn't told them before she fell, so they didn't know to inform Draco," Narcissa replied.

"Why didn't anyone at the hospital question her ring?" Lucius asked. "I'm assuming she was wearing it if she was planning on telling people about her and Draco."

"She was wearing it on Friday when I last saw her," Draco said quietly. Even though his eyes had never left Hermione's prone body, he'd been listening to his parent's conversation. "Considering she was going to tell them about us, I can't see why she would have removed her ring."

"Before we can say it's missing we need to check with the hospital, and check the penthouse," Narcissa warned. She didn't want Lucius and Draco to cause trouble without having some reason to question what had happened to Hermione.

"We can do that later, but first I think we should move Hermione into a private room," Draco said, making a decision about his fiancée. "Until we know the truth about what happened, I'm not sure she's safe."

"Surely you don't think anyone would hurt her in here," Narcissa said to her son.

"I don't know," Draco admitted with a shrug as he turned to face his parents. "What I do know is that she was planning on telling her friends about us, and she's ended up in hospital. Until I know exactly what happened to her, I'm not taking any risks."

"I'm sure we can move her to a private room," Lucius said. "Although we might need proof that the pair of you are engaged. Unless the hospital is extremely negligent, they should demand proof that you're her fiancé before they agree to your wishes to move her."

"I can pick up our marriage licence when I head back to the penthouse," Draco said. "I can also look for her ring, unless it's here and the hospital just failed to mention it to anyone."

"I'll go and ask the mediwitch," Narcissa said. "You stay with Hermione for a bit longer."

While Narcissa headed off to speak to the mediwitch, Lucius headed off to find the hospital administrators to discuss moving Hermione. Draco meanwhile remained with his fiancée, wishing she would wake up and tell him what happened. Until he knew the truth he knew there was no way he was letting any of her friends anywhere near her. Even if she did yell at him when she woke up, it would be worth it to ensure she was completely safe.

"I'm sorry for leaving you," He whispered as he gently brushed her hair out of her face. "I should have been with you, maybe then this wouldn't have happened."

"You know that's not true," Narcissa remarked as she came up behind her son. "Even if you'd been here this weekend, you wouldn't have gone with her to the Weasleys home. She would have gone alone, and this still would have happened."

"Maybe, but at least I would have been at the hospital quicker," Draco replied. "She's been here since Friday night, while I was enjoying myself in Italy. I should have been at her side."

"You're here now, that's all the matters," Narcissa said, wrapping her arm around Draco's shoulders and giving him a hug.

Draco nodded once, before turning to his mother. "Did you find her ring?"

"The mediwitch is adamant she wasn't wearing a ring when she was brought in," Narcissa replied. "She also let me check through her belongings and there was no sign of her ring."

"So unless it's at the penthouse, which I doubt, it's been taken," Draco said. "And in that case, there's definitely something dodgy going on. If she had her ring, no-one would have taken it if her fall had been a genuine accident."

Narcissa agreed with her son's thinking but she urged him not to jump to any conclusions until they knew for sure that the ring wasn't back at the penthouse. Draco was just promising Narcissa he wouldn't go around accusing anyone of causing Hermione's accident when Lucius returned. Lucius told Draco that moving Hermione into a private room wouldn't be a problem, providing they proved to the hospital that Draco was indeed Hermione's fiancé.

"I'll head back to the penthouse and grab the licence and check on her ring," Draco said. "Will one of you stay with her? I don't want anyone coming in and trying to tamper with her memories or anything."

"I'll stay with her," Narcissa promised her son.

"And I'll come with you," Lucius told his son. "We can then head straight to the office and arrange Hermione's transfer. By visiting hours tonight, she'll be safely tucked up in the private wing and no-one will be able to visit her without your express permission."

With plans in place, Draco and Lucius headed off to the penthouse. At the penthouse they grabbed the paperwork they would require for St Mungo's and checked for Hermione's ring. As they both expected there was no sign of Hermione's ring and a summoning charm confirmed it wasn't in the penthouse. More sure than ever that something untoward had happened to Hermione, Draco and Lucius headed back to the hospital where they proceeded to oversee Hermione's transfer into the private wing of the hospital. Draco also drew up an official list of people allowed to see Hermione, and none of her friends were included on the list.


	6. Chapter 5

"Ginny, hurry up," Ron called impatiently up the stairs. Evening visiting hours at the hospital were just about to begin and he didn't want to miss out on time with Hermione.

"I'm coming," Ginny shouted back. "Give me two more minutes."

"Fine, you've got two minutes and if you're not downstairs then Harry and I will leave you behind," Ron called back before he headed into the front room where Harry was waiting beside the fire.

"Girls." Harry rolled his eyes at Ron, but the redhead could see his friend was just as anxious to get going as he was.

On Friday afternoon the pair had been shocked to arrive home with Ginny only to find Hermione lying crumpled at the bottom of the stairs. They'd immediately rushed their friend to St Mungo's, and while the healers had been able to mend her broken bones and reduce her bruising they hadn't been able to wake her up. Since late Friday afternoon Hermione had been lying unconscious and both Harry and Ron were secretly worried that she would never wake up.

"I thought you were off to the hospital," Molly remarked as she poked her head in from the kitchen.

"We're waiting for Ginny, she's taking an eternity," Ron grumbled.

"Make sure you give Hermione our love," Molly said.

"I thought you were at the hospital this morning," Ron said, frowning at his mother. He knew she'd gone to visit Fred, who was now awake but wasn't strong enough to come home, but he assumed she'd popped in to see Hermione as well.

"I was, and I went to see Hermione, but it never hurts to keep letting her know how much we love her," Molly said. "She may not be awake, but we have no idea how much she can hear. Take Fred for example, he aware of pretty much everything that happened when he was in his coma. So I say we keep talking to Hermione and when she wakes up she might know how much we care about her."

Before Harry and Ron had a chance to agree with Molly's way of thinking, Ginny pounded down the stairs and came rushing into the front room. After apologising for holding things up, she grabbed some floo powder and led the way to St Mungo's.

The trio knew exactly where to find Hermione so they were able to bypass the main reception and head straight up to the floor she was on. Upon arriving at Hermione's ward they greeted the mediwitch who was sitting at the desk with a warm smile. There seemed to be three regular mediwitches on duty in Hermione's wing, and while the current witch wasn't the same one who was on duty when Hermione had first been admitted they had come to know all three of them over the course of the weekend.

"We're here to see Hermione," Harry said.

"She's no longer on this ward," The mediwitch told the shocked teenagers.

"Where is she?" Ron asked. "Has her condition improved?"

"I have no idea about her condition, all I know is that she's been moved to the private wing of the hospital," The mediwitch replied.

"Who the hell moved her?" Harry frowned. Her only family were her parents, who happened to be in Australia with no memory of Hermione, so he had no idea who had the right to move their friend.

"I don't know, she was gone when I came on duty just over an hour ago," The mediwitch answered. "If you want answers, you'll have to go up to the private wing."

"Thanks," Harry said to the witch as the trio turned and left the ward where their friend had been located.

After finding out where the private rooms in the hospital were, the trio began heading in that direction. All the time they discussed who could have moved Hermione, but they were coming up with nothing. Not only did Hermione have no family in the country, but the private service at the hospital had to cost a fortune and they had no idea who would pay for Hermione to receive specialist treatment.

When they arrived at the private rooms they found the entrance to the whole wing blocked by a large semi-circular desk. The desk was manned by a mediwitch, who greeted the trio with a smile and asked how she could help them.

"We're here to see Hermione Granger," Harry answered. "We were told she was moved here sometime today."

The mediwitch flicked through some papers on the desk and nodded when she found what she was looking for. "Yes, Miss Granger is in the private wing. Can I have your names, please?"

"Are you serious?" Ron snorted, looking at the mediwitch in disbelief. "Surely you recognise Harry Potter. He's just saved the entire wizarding world."

"I wouldn't go that far, Ron," Harry muttered as he turned red at the compliment.

"I would," Ginny piped up, smiling adoringly at her boyfriend. "If it wasn't for you Voldemort would still be around and terrorising the world."

"No matter who you are, I still need to know your names," The mediwitch replied, looking unimpressed with the trio. "It's procedure."

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry said. He figured it would be easier to give the witch what she wanted, that way she might let them in to see Hermione. "And my friends are Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley."

The witch nodded and proceeded to flick through some more papers before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, you're not authorized to see Miss Granger."

"What do you mean not authorized? We're her best friends?" Ron demanded loudly.

"You're not on the list of authorized visitors," The mediwitch replied.

"But, this is Harry Potter," Ginny said, gesturing to Harry. "Everyone knows Harry is Hermione's best friend. Along with Ron, they saved the world. They're heroes."

"Heroes or not, you need to be on the list to pass through these doors," The mediwitch answered. "None of you are on the list, so you don't get to visit Miss Granger."

"Can you at least tell us how she is?" Harry asked. "Is she any better?"

"I'm not at liberty to divulge information about Miss Granger's condition," The mediwitch answered with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry, but you're not on the list of authorized people we have. Unless your names on the list, you'll get nowhere."

"Whose name is in the list?" Ginny questioned, wondering if they could come back later when another witch was on duty claiming to be someone who was on the list.

"I'm not at liberty to divulge that information," The mediwitch said, giving Ginny an unimpressed glare that told the redhead she knew exactly what she'd been thinking.

"Who the hell made this list?" Ron exploded, turning red with anger. "Who moved her and barred us from seeing her?"

"That would be Miss Granger's fiancé," The mediwitch answered.

"Fiancé?" Harry frowned. "She doesn't have a fiancé, she doesn't even have a boyfriend."

"I'm just telling you what I know," The mediwitch shrugged.

"This is all lies," Ron seethed. "Who is this so called fiancé? Whoever has done this has no right to move Hermione."

As the mediwitch opened her mouth to reply, Harry shook his head and jumped in. "Don't tell us, you're not at liberty to divulge that information."

"Precisely," The mediwitch nodded, relieved that at least one of the trio was catching on.

"What do we do?" Ginny asked Harry and Ron.

"What can we do?" Harry shrugged. "We can't get in to see Hermione, we can't even find out if she's okay. All we can do is go home and try to work out what's going on."

"You haven't heard the last of this," Ron told the mediwitch with a glare. "You'll regret trying to stop us from seeing her."

"Come on Ron, don't make a scene," Harry said, pulling at his friend's arm.

"Okay, I'm coming," Ron muttered, following Harry and Ginny as they made their way back to the reception area. "But please tell me we're going to do something about this."

"Of course we are," Harry replied. "We're going to find out who has moved Hermione, and why. Something isn't right here, and we will get to the bottom of it."

Nodding in agreement, Ron and Ginny followed Harry back through the floo network. When they arrived back at The Burrow so quickly, Molly and the rest of the family were surprised to see them back so soon. However their surprise soon turned to outrage when the trio explained what had happened at the hospital. After much discussion, during which no-one could come up with anyone who could have moved Hermione, it was decided that the rest of the family would try and see Hermione the following day. If that failed they would then have to find another way to find out who had moved Hermione and why.

* * *

Lucius was just making his way into the private wing of the hospital when he spotted Arthur and Molly Weasley at the front desk. Wondering if they were trying to get in to see Hermione, he hung back in the shadows and turned his attention to the conversation going on at the desk.

"I'm telling you, we're as good as family to that girl," Molly yelled at the mediwitch that was refusing them entry. "We think of her as a daughter."

"I'm sorry Mrs Weasley, but you're not on the list therefore you cannot see Miss Granger," The mediwitch answered in a firm voice.

"Come on Molly, we're getting nowhere here," Arthur sighed, wrapping his arm around Molly and pulling her away from the desk.

"What are we going to do Arthur?" Molly asked as the pair unknowingly came to a halt mere metres away from where Lucius was hovering. "We need to know who moved Hermione and why. It can't be her parents, but who else could have moved her? And what is all this nonsense about a fiancé? She doesn't have a fiancé."

"Maybe Kingsley can help us," Arthur suggested. "He's acting Minister, he might be able to pull rank and get us some information. And if he can't, he might be able to give us some advice on how we can find out who moved Hermione. There might be some legal avenue we can explore."

"Let's hope so," Molly muttered as the pair turned and finished making their way out of the private section of the hospital.

Lucius waited until the pair were well out of sight before he slid out of the shadows and made his way to the front desk. After giving the mediwitch his name, Lucius asked about people trying to visit Hermione and he found out that the previous night Harry, Ron and Ginny had tried to visit her as well. No doubt that was what had alerted the Weasleys to what was going on with Hermione, and he wouldn't be surprised if over the course of the day a few more Weasleys tried gaining access to his future daughter-in-law.

Heading through the doors that guarded the private rooms, Lucius quickly looked in on Severus before he made his way to the room where Hermione was residing in. As he knew he would, he found Draco sitting beside his fiancée's bed and by the looks of things Lucius doubted his son had even gone home the previous night.

"How is she?" Lucius asked, pulling up a seat beside his son.

"No change," Draco sighed. "But the healers are going to run some more tests this afternoon. They want to be sure her brain is still functioning normally and that nothing was missed when she was first admitted."

"Maybe you should go and get some rest," Lucius suggested gently. "I can stay with Hermione, and I know your mother is planning on coming in later."

"I don't want to leave her," Draco said quietly. He was terrified that he might leave her side and she would either wake up, or take a turn for the worse.

"Just take an hour or so," Lucius urged his son. "Go home, have a shower and grab something to eat. You'll feel much better for it, I promise."

"I suppose an hour wouldn't hurt," Draco said. "And at least I know no-one can get to her while I'm away."

"No, they can't. I've just witnessed Molly and Arthur Weasley being turned away with no information," Lucius chuckled. "And according to the mediwitch I spoke to her friends tried to see her last night."

"They did," Draco nodded. "I spoke to the mediwitch after they'd left and she said they were furious to be turned away. Apparently Weasley threatened that they would be back."

"I've just overheard Molly and Arthur talking and it sounds like they're going to Kingsley Shackelbolt," Lucius told his son. "They're hoping his position as Minister will help them gain access to Hermione."

"Will it?" Draco questioned.

"Not unless he's going to go down the legal route," Lucius replied. "Although I think if he does turn up that one of us should speak to him. It might be handy to make our suspicions known."

"True," Draco nodded. "As I leave I'll speak to the mediwitch and I'll inform her that if the Minister turns up to let us know and we'll speak to him. Maybe he can help us get to the bottom of what happened to Hermione."


	7. Chapter 6

Kingsley was intrigued when he was approached by Molly and Arthur and informed a mystery man claiming to be Hermione's fiancé had moved her into a private wing of St Mungo's. Kingsley had made it clear to the couple that if everything was above board and the hospital were satisfied whoever moved Hermione was indeed her fiancé, there would be nothing he could do without getting into some sort of legal proceedings. However he did agree to visit the hospital, partly to appease the couple and partly to satisfy his own curiosity. He knew Hermione personally and knew nothing of a fiancé so the whole thing was baffling.

It was the middle of the afternoon before Kingsley managed to find time to go to St Mungo's and rather than heading up to the private wing of the hospital he headed to the administrative offices. There he spoke to the head of the hospital who reassured him that the person who had moved Hermione was indeed her fiancé, and they had proof in the form of a marriage licence. Kingsley knew that if a marriage licence had been issued there would be a record of it at the ministry, but rather than just head back to work and find out who Hermione's fiancé was he decided to pop up to the private wing in the hopes he could either see Hermione or speak to her fiancé.

"Minister Shackelbolt. What can I do for you?" The mediwitch on the desk asked with a warm smile when she spotted the acting Minister for Magic approaching her.

"I was hoping to see Hermione Granger, although I know I may be missing from the list of people authorized to see her," Kingsley replied.

"Yes, you are," The mediwitch replied. Without even checking the list she knew the Minister wasn't on it. "However, Miss Granger's fiancé did leave a message saying that if you showed up, he would talk to you. If you want to take a seat in the family room, I'll go and inform him you're here."

The mediwitch pointed Kingsley in the direction of a dark blue door that stood just beside the reception desk. Unlike the door to the ward, that was actually located behind the desk, the door to the family room was accessible without having to pass through the hatch in the reception desk. Kingsley guessed the room was for visitors that didn't have permission to actually enter the private rooms hidden behind the desk.

While the mediwitch headed off to find Hermione's fiancé, Kingsley followed her directions and headed into the family room. He was totally puzzled as to how Hermione's fiancé even knew he would be turning up. While he may know Hermione through the Order, they weren't particularly close so there was no reason her fiancé would think he would visit her.

Kingsley was still puzzling over what was going on when the door opened and a familiar wizard entered the family room. Kingsley was rather taken aback by the identity of the wizard he was presuming was Hermione's fiancé and it took him several seconds to regain his voice.

"Draco?"

Draco smiled politely at Kingsley. "Hello Minister. I'm sure you've got lots of questions, so maybe we should sit down."

"Of course." Kingsley nodded as he took and seat, with Draco settling down in the seat opposite him.

"Before I explain why I moved Hermione, I thought I might tell you a bit about our relationship," Draco said. "I'm guessing you're rather shocked to find out we're a couple."

"I think shocked is putting it mildly," Kingsley replied with a low chuckle.

"Our relationship began back in school," Draco explained. "I won't bore you with all the details, but we were working together on a school project and became friendly. Romance developed from there and by sixth year we were very serious about one another, despite our rather awkward situation regarding the war."

"I imagine that would complicate things a bit," Kingsley mused.

"It did," Draco confirmed. "Before I left in sixth year we made a pact that if we both survived the war and I didn't end up in Azkaban that we would get married. Obviously we both survived and thanks to my father I'm a free man, so we officially got engaged."

"You're not a free man thanks only to your father," Kingsley interrupted. "I won't deny that Lucius's help with his fellow Death Eaters was a part of the decision, but I don't believe a custodial sentence was ever an option for you, not once we knew what you'd been through. Everyone involved in the decision not to send you to Azkaban agrees that you were stuck within Voldemort's clutches and could do nothing to escape. We also all agreed that if given the chance you could become a great man, free from any connections with the dark arts."

"I appreciate your belief in me," Draco replied, rather taken aback by Kingsley's statement. The only other person outside his family to show so much faith in him was Hermione, and even then he thought she may be biased because she loved him.

"I'm sure Hermione shares that belief, otherwise she wouldn't be with you," Kingsley said. "Now, you were saying about how you got engaged."

Draco nodded, getting his mind back to where it was supposed to be. "Once we were sure I wasn't going to Azkaban we got engaged and applied for a marriage licence."

"That was weeks ago, why doesn't no-one know about the pair of you?" Kingsley asked.

"We didn't think it was appropriate at the time," Draco explained. "The war had just ended, people were grieving and one of the Weasleys wasn't certain of surviving. Hermione didn't want to make it appear as though she was rubbing her happiness in people's faces. The last thing we wanted to be doing was celebrating when people were still suffering, so we decided to wait until things were more settled. Last week the licence came through, and when I spoke to Hermione before I left on Friday she was planning on telling her friends about us."

"Did she tell them?" Kingsley asked. According to Molly and Arthur no-one knew who Hermione's fiancé was, but maybe someone did know and was keeping quiet.

"I have no idea," Draco replied. "I went away to see a friend on Friday. It was just coincidence that Father overheard Arthur Weasley talking about Hermione at the Ministry yesterday. That was how I knew she was in here."

"So, why have you moved her and barred her friends from seeing her?" Kingsley questioned.

"I'm not sure her fall was accidental," Draco admitted. "She was very clear that she was going to tell her friends about us over the weekend, then she ends up in here."

"You think she told someone, they reacted badly and pushed her down the stairs," Kingsley stated, not believing any of her friends would do that.

"I don't know what to think," Draco replied. "But I do know her engagement ring is missing. She was wearing it on Friday, it's not at the penthouse and the mediwitch who treated her when she was first admitted swears she wasn't wearing a ring when she arrived at the hospital."

"So where is it?" Kingsley frowned.

"That's what I would like to know," Draco said. "That is the reason I'm not convinced this was an accident. If it was an accident she would have been wearing her ring."

"If you're so sure Hermione's fall wasn't an accident, why haven't you reported it?" Kingsley asked. He agreed that the missing ring was suspicious, but he was unsure why Draco hadn't voiced these concerns earlier.

"I don't want to cause trouble. I've moved Hermione and barred anyone from seeing her as a precaution. Until she wakes up and can tell us what happened, I'm not going to go around accusing people," Draco answered. "But on the other hand I wasn't going to leave her where she was in case someone had pushed her and they tried to get to her again."

"I have to say the missing ring worries me," Kingsley sighed. "But like you, I'm loathe to point fingers unless we have proof. I don't believe any of the Weasleys, and I include Harry in that, would hurt Hermione."

"I don't want to believe that either, but until I know the truth no-one will be visiting her," Draco insisted. "If you want, you can come in and see her and feel free to talk to the Weasleys and inform them of what's going on."

"Will I be able to tell them how Hermione's doing?" Kingsley asked. He knew their names weren't even on the list to receive information about Hermione, so he wasn't sure if Draco meant he could inform the family about him but not Hermione.

"Yes," Draco answered with a nod.

"And how is she doing?" Kingsley questioned as they stood up and began to make their way out of the family room.

"The healers took another look at her earlier this afternoon," Draco replied as he led the way past the reception desk, greeting the mediwitch as he did so, and through the doors that led to the private rooms. "They're confident she's getting better. Her brain activity is more powerful than both Friday and Saturday and they're hopeful she's on the verge of waking up."

"Will she be able to remember what happened?" Kingsley asked.

"Until she wakes up, we have no idea," Draco replied, stopping as he reached the door to Hermione's room.

Draco opened the door to his fiancée's room and Kingsley followed the young wizard inside. Hermione was lying in a crisp hospital bed and Narcissa was sitting at her bedside reading snippets of the Daily Prophet out loud to the unconscious witch. When she spotted Kingsley, Narcissa shut the paper and got up to greet the Minister.

"I agreed to let Minister Shackelbolt come and see Hermione," Draco explained to his mother when she shot him a puzzled look.

"I assume Draco has informed you of our worries," Narcissa said to Kingsley.

"He has," Kingsley confirmed. "And I'm more than happy to discreetly look into it if you wish. I know until Hermione wakes up we can't progress too far, but I can at least quiz the Weasleys. I know the family pretty well, and I'm sure I'll be able to tell if anyone's reaction to the news Hermione is engaged to Draco is false."

"As long as you make it clear, I'm not accusing anyone," Draco told the Minister. "I don't want Hermione to wake up and find everything is a mess. Just let them know I'm doing what's best for Hermione, and hopefully when she wakes up she can tell us exactly what happened."

"Let's hope so," Kingsley replied, looking over to where Hermione lay. As he was watching her, he was sure he spotted her hand twitching. "Did you see that?" He asked as Draco brushed past him and went up to his fiancée's beside.

"Yes," Narcissa answered as Draco clutched at Hermione's hand and spoke quietly to her. "I'll go and get the mediwitch."

While Narcissa went to get the mediwitch, Kingsley moved closer to Hermione and found she was beginning to stir. Her movements were only slight and her eyes were still closed, but there was no doubt about it, she was waking up.

"Do you mind if I stick around for a bit?" Kingsley asked Draco as Narcissa re-entered the room with the mediwitch, who immediately rushed over to check on Hermione before hurrying back out to get her healer.

"Why don't we all head to the family room," Narcissa suggested when Draco gave Kingsley permission to stay.

"You go," Draco said, not tearing his gaze from Hermione. "I'm staying with Hermione."

Knowing it would be better to give Hermione some space if she was waking up, Kingsley and Narcissa headed to the family room. On the way they picked up a coffee from the refreshment machine, before they settled down to wait for news. In the end they were waiting for nearly an hour and a half before Draco entered the room, looking relieved and wearing a smile.

"She's okay," He announced, sinking into a chair next to his mother. "She's sustained no serious damage, although she might suffer from headaches more often than a normal person. The healer says they want to keep her in the hospital initially as she recovers, and of course they want to be sure there's going to be no side effects from her fall. However, if things go well she could be released in few days."

"What about her fall?" Narcissa asked. "Can she remember anything?"

"It was only mentioned briefly as she fell back to sleep almost immediately once the healer had finished examining her," Draco replied. "From what she can remember, she went to The Burrow but no-one was home. She then heard a noise from upstairs and went up in case someone was upstairs. But from there onwards it's a blank, she can't even remember if she reached the top of the stairs."

"Will anymore come back to her, or is that it?" Kingsley asked.

"The healer didn't know," Draco shrugged. "He said it's entirely possible that's all she'll ever remember, but he also said that once she's been awake longer and is more alert that she might remember more. All we can do is wait and see."

"Keep me informed, and I'll look into what exactly happened at The Burrow," Kingsley said as he stood up. "I promise, if someone pushed her, we'll find out who and why."

"Thank you," Draco smiled at the Minister for Magic. "If you want to come back and see Hermione, feel free. I'll put you on the list. I can also arrange for her friends to see her, providing that's what she wants."

"I'll let them know, thank you," Kingsley said, before the trio left the family room.

While Draco and Narcissa headed back to Hermione's bedside, Kingsley headed back to his office. He wanted some time to think before he went to The Burrow and approached the Weasleys. He didn't want to believe that one of the family had hurt Hermione, but he had to admit there was something suspicious about her accident. Especially the fact her engagement ring was missing. Why would someone take her ring? It just made no sense to Kingsley, but he was determined to get to the bottom of Hermione's accident and discover the truth.


	8. Chapter 7

Hermione was the main topic of conversation over dinner at The Burrow. Molly and Arthur had mentioned their talk with Kingsley, but both Harry and Ron were eager to take things further. Neither of them was happy that they'd been barred from seeing their best friend by someone they didn't know existed. The fact the war had just ended and Hermione was being hailed as a pretty significant part of why the light prevailed, didn't exactly alleviate their worries. For all they knew she'd been moved so someone connected to the dark could gain access to her.

A conversation was just taking place about what they could do if Kingsley couldn't help them when the man in question knocked on the back door. Percy headed to the door to let the Minister into the kitchen while the rest of the family waited anxiously for news of Hermione.

Kingsley smiled at the family as he entered the kitchen. "Hello everyone." He was pleased to see the whole family was in residence, apart from Fred, who was still recovering in hospital but improving daily.

"Do you have some news for us?" Harry asked impatiently.

"I do," Kingsley replied. "Why don't we all take a seat and I can tell you all about my visit to the hospital."

"I'll make some tea," Molly announced.

"Let me help," Fleur offered, joining her mother-in-law in preparing tea while everyone else settled around the kitchen table.

While Molly and Fleur were making tea, Kingsley made polite conversation with the rest of the family. He checked that Harry and Ron were still enjoying their work with the Aurors, before asking Bill and Charlie how Hogwarts was coming along. George was just telling the Minister about how much Fred was improving when Molly and Fleur started handing cups of tea around, before taking their own seats next to their husbands.

"You went to the hospital. Did you get any answers?" Molly asked Kingsley, eager to get back to the reason for his visit.

"I did," Kingsley answered. "While I wasn't on the list of approved visitors for Hermione, I spoke to both the manager of the hospital and Hermione's fiancé."

"So she does have a fiancé," Bill stated, clearly surprised by the news. Even though they'd been told Hermione had been moved by a fiancé, the whole family were sceptical that she was engaged without their knowledge.

"She does, and everything checks out with him," Kingsley replied. Once he returned to the Ministry he checked the marriage licences and found one for Draco and Hermione. "He has a marriage licence issued by the Ministry, so the hospital were well within their rights to let him move her."

"Who the hell is this bloke though?" Ron demanded. "We didn't even know she was seeing someone, let alone engaged."

"Hermione's fiancé is Draco Malfoy," Kingsley announced, watching the Weasleys reactions closely in case anyone didn't look surprised at the news.

Almost everyone's mouth dropped open in shock at the news and there were quiet mutterings around the table. Ron however turned a nasty shade of red and Kingsley was worried he was going to completely lose his temper.

"That's not true," Ron seethed. "He's lying. There must be a reason he wants to keep Hermione from us, and it's not because they're engaged."

"I agree," Harry said. Even though he was speaking in a much calmer tone of voice than Ron, Kingsley could tell he was every bit as angry as his best friend. "If Hermione was with Malfoy, she would have told us. Besides, they hate each other."

"I've spoken to Draco, and I can assure you that their relationship is completely genuine," Kingsley told the family. "He loves her. That much was very clear."

"No," Ron shouted, banging his hand on the table and causing several of the cups of tea to shake and spill liquid onto the wooden surface of the table. "Malfoy can't be trusted, we need to get Hermione away from him."

"And you wonder why she was keeping quiet about him," George snorted.

"You knew?" Ginny glared accusingly at her older brother.

"No, not exactly," George said, shaking his head. "But I did know they didn't hate each other. They did a project together back in what would have been your fourth year. Fred and I found them in the library one evening, and from where we were standing it looked very much like they were flirting, although Hermione denied it when we confronted her. We both expected her to show up at the Yule Ball with Malfoy, but she went with Krum for some reason. We saw Hermione with Malfoy again the following year, but she insisted they were just studying together. So no, I didn't know they were together, but I'm not surprised."

"I still don't believe it," Ron said stubbornly. "Hermione wouldn't get involved with that snake."

"It would appear she did," Bill said gently. "And we have no right to judge who Hermione gets involved with."

"You can't be serious, Bill," Molly said, aghast at her eldest son's lack of concern for Hermione. "The boy is dangerous, just look at what his family did during the war. Look at what he did. He's the reason you were attacked by that werewolf."

"He was a scared teenager, Mum," Bill replied. "His father was in Azkaban, he had Voldemort roaming around his house and his mother's life was being threatened. I'm not saying his choices were always the best, but he was doing what he felt he needed to do to save his mother. I can't blame him for Greyback attacking me."

"Maybe you can't, but I can," Molly insisted. "He was responsible for letting those Death Eaters into school. I can't believe Hermione would get involved with someone like that. How can she be with him, knowing what he did?"

"I only know the basics, for anything more you'll have to ask Hermione yourself," Kingsley said.

"We can't exactly do that, can we?" Harry retorted. "Malfoy's banned us from seeing her, plus we don't even know if she's awake."

"She woke up this afternoon," Kingsley announced, again watching for anyone acting suspiciously. So far he hadn't spotted anything untoward with the family's reactions, and no-one looked worried by the news Hermione was awake.

"Is she okay?" Arthur asked.

"There's no permanent damage," Kingsley answered. "She wasn't awake for long, but she's now just resting."

"And we can't even see her," Ron grumbled.

"Did you ask why we can't see her?" Ginny asked Kingsley. "We're her friends and we're worried about her. Especially now we know she's in Malfoy's clutches."

"Draco was just being cautious," Kingsley answered. "He believes there's more to Hermione's accident than we know."

"He better not be accusing us of hurting her," Ron snarled, clenching his fists on top of the table. "If anyone's hurt her, it'll be him."

"Draco's not accusing anyone, but he is worried about Hermione's engagement ring being missing," Kingsley explained. "She was coming over here on Friday to break the news of her engagement, but now her ring is missing."

"Maybe it's at her flat," Harry suggested with a shrug. "She might have wanted to talk to us before flashing her ring about."

"The ring isn't at the penthouse she lives in," Kingsley answered. "It also isn't at St Mungo's, and the mediwitch who first treated her is adamant she wasn't wearing a ring when she was brought in."

"I can't remember seeing a ring when we found her," Ginny said thoughtfully.

"Could it have fallen when she fell?" Percy asked. "It might have slipped off her finger and be lying around somewhere."

"Let's see if we can find it then," Kingsley said, pulling his wand from his robes. "Accio, Hermione's engagement ring."

Kingsley tried the spell three times, but no ring was forthcoming. Wherever Hermione's ring was, it wasn't in The Burrow anywhere.

"Have you tried asking Hermione where her ring is?" Molly questioned. "Maybe you should find out if she was truly wearing it, before you go around throwing wild allegations at my family."

"No-one's throwing allegations, Molly," Kingsley said soothingly. "Draco just wants to know what happened and where Hermione's ring is. And as for asking Hermione, we will do when she's more alert. However she did manage to say that she remembers arriving at The Burrow and finding the house empty. At least she thought it was empty until she heard a noise upstairs. She can remember setting off up the stairs, but everything after that is a blank."

"Are you suggesting whoever was upstairs, is responsible for her fall?" Charlie asked the Minister.

"I don't know until we find whoever it was," Kingsley answered.

"Well it wasn't Harry and I," Ron said defensively. "We were at the Ministry all day, then we met Ginny for a drink before we came home and found Hermione."

"That was the first time I was here as well," Ginny said. "I spent the day at St Mungo's with George and Mum."

"And Dad and I were at work all day," Percy added. "We knew nothing of the accident until Mum sent for us."

"Since everyone's jumping in with their whereabouts, Charlie and I were up at Hogwarts all day," Bill announced. "Fleur was with us all morning as well."

"I was," Fleur agreed with a nod. "Then I went shopping before I tidied around the house. It's a bit messy since Charlie is staying with us."

"Are you calling me messy?" Charlie asked his sister-in-law with a fake pout.

"You're not the tidiest of people," Fleur replied haughtily.

"We all know Charlie's a slob, but can we get back to Hermione," Ron snapped. "Since it was none of us upstairs, who did Hermione find? Did she disturb a burglar?"

"Is there any indication that a robbery has taken place?" Kingsley asked. He suspected a robbery would have been discovered before now so he wasn't buying Ron's theory that Hermione had disturbed an intruder.

"We haven't noticed anything is missing, but then again we haven't looked," Molly replied.

"Whoever was here might not have had time to steal anything," Percy suggested. "Hermione may have disturbed them before they took anything. They then might have spotted Hermione's ring and took that before they fled."

Ginny nodded enthusiastically, agreeing with her brother. "I'm betting any ring she had off Malfoy had to have been big and expensive looking. The burglar probably saw it and pocketed it. No doubt it's worth far more than anything they could find here."

"If that was the case, was there any sign of a break-in?" Kingsley asked. "A burglar would have had to have broken in somewhere and no doubt they would have disturbed the wards."

"There was no sign of anything like that," Arthur said with a shake of his head. "The house wasn't broken into. Whoever was in here, didn't set off any of the wards and they didn't need to break any doors or windows to gain access."

"They might have just walked in the back door," Molly suggested. "We don't always remember to lock it, especially with all the comings and goings of late."

"Even so, a complete stranger would have triggered the wards," Arthur pointed out to his wife.

"Maybe we were robbed by someone we trusted," Ron suggested.

"We can't say it was a robbery unless we have proof something is missing," Kingsley said.

"Hermione's ring's missing, isn't that proof enough?" Ginny questioned.

"That's not proof someone broke into The Burrow, that's proof someone took Hermione's ring," Kingsley answered. "I guess all we can do now is wait until she's feeling better and hope she can remember something else that could help us."

"Are you going to see Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Probably," Kingsley nodded. "I want to give her a few days' rest, but I'll be going to see her again."

"Do you think you can ask Malfoy if we can see her?" Harry inquired.

"He's already said that as long as Hermione wants to see you, he'll let you in to see her," Kingsley answered. "If you try going back to the hospital tomorrow, she might be well enough to choose to see you."

"What's the betting that Malfoy still reckons she doesn't want to see us," Ron grumbled. "He's trying to keep us away from her."

"He's not," Kingsley promised. "He's just looking out for her. As long as Hermione wants to see you, I promise you'll see her."

Harry smiled at the Minister as Ron continued to mutter under his breath. "Thanks Kingsley. We'll pop to the hospital tomorrow."

Kingsley nodded at Harry as he stood up and said goodnight to the rest of the family. As he left his mind was in a whirl as he replayed the conversation with the Weasleys in his head. While no-one acted suspicious, he could understand why Hermione was wary of telling the family them about her engagement. A couple of them had reacted pretty badly, Ron especially, and he had to wonder if they would have reacted that way if Hermione had told them herself. If they had he could very easily see one or two of them losing their tempers with Hermione, and that could have resulted in her fall. The only question was, did she inform someone of her engagement and they reacted badly, or was Ron's theory right and had Hermione disturbed an intruder that spotted her ring and took off with it?


	9. Chapter 8

When Hermione initially woke up, things weren't very clear and she was only awake an hour or so before she drifted back off to sleep. However when she woke the second time she felt significantly better, and what had happened to her was clearer in her head. Not that it meant she knew who was upstairs at The Burrow, unfortunately that particular bit of information was still a mystery to her. It did however mean she was more alert when she opened her eyes and found Draco and his parents sitting beside her bed.

Draco smiled at her the minute he realised she was awake. "Hi, gorgeous. How are you feeling? Do we need to get the healer?"

"I'm okay," Hermione said. "My head hurts and my body aches, but didn't the healer say that was to be expected?"

"Yeah. You might have headaches for a while and they might become a more regular part of your life. As for the aches, that's the bruising and broken bones you suffered. They fixed your bones and ensured your bruises didn't get worse, but you'll still be stiff and aching for a few weeks," Draco told his fiancée.

"That's something to look forward to," Hermione muttered as she carefully moved so she was sitting up.

"Surely it's better to be aching, than to still be unconscious," Draco retorted.

"It is," Hermione replied. "How long was I unconscious for exactly? I'm a bit hazy on days."

"It's Tuesday," Narcissa answered. "Your fall occurred sometime on Friday, although we don't know exactly when."

"I went to The Burrow early afternoon," Hermione said, thinking back to the day she'd had her accident. "Not that I can be sure if that's when I fell. I could have been there hours before I fell."

"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it," Draco reassured Hermione. "Stop worrying, and just concentrate on getting better."

"I can't stop worrying," Hermione admitted quietly. "You think it's deliberate, which means someone I trust did this to me."

"We're not sure it's deliberate," Draco said cautiously.

"Although it is might suspicious," Lucius snorted. "Especially with your ring being missing."

"I'm sorry about the ring," Hermione said to her future father-in-law. She knew Lucius had given Draco the ring as a symbol that he was welcoming Hermione to the family and she felt guilty for losing something that was clearly precious to him.

"It's not your fault," Lucius stated. "We'll find the ring, what's important is that you're okay. You're more important than a ring."

Hermione was rather taken aback by Lucius's obvious concern for her. In the last few weeks she'd gotten to know both Lucius and Narcissa and while her relationship with both of them was developing nicely she'd had no idea that Lucius had become so attached to her.

"Anyway, I think it's time we left," Lucius announced, standing up before things turned too emotional. "Draco, are you coming home tonight?"

"I think I'll stay with Hermione," Draco said to his parents as they prepared to leave.

"You need to rest, Draco," Hermione told her fiancé. She could see he'd barely slept the previous night and since she was going to be in hospital for a few days yet she didn't want him keeping a constant vigil at her bedside.

"I can rest here with you," Draco argued.

"Make sure you do get some rest," Narcissa advised her son, before she gave Hermione a warm smile and squeezed her hand as she said how nice it was to have her back with them.

Lucius also expressed how happy he was that Hermione was awake, before the couple exited the room. Once they were alone, Hermione got Draco to help her out of bed so she could visit the adjoining bathroom. Despite protesting that she shouldn't be up and about, Draco helped Hermione to go where she wanted to go. Hermione was just returning to bed when her healer entered the room, smiling when he saw Hermione was moving about the room.

"I take it you're feeling a bit better," The healer said as he walked over to the side of Hermione's bed.

"A bit," Hermione replied. "Although my head is starting to really throb and just a trip to the bathroom made my entire body ache."

"I'll give you a potion to help relieve the aching, but in a few days that'll start to go naturally," The healer said as he rummaged in the medical bag he carried for the appropriate medications for Hermione.

"What about the headaches?" Hermione questioned.

"I can give you a pain relief potion for those, but I think tomorrow I want to run a few tests," The healer answered. "As I mentioned earlier, I do foresee headaches being a common part of your life but we can manage them if we work out what we're dealing with."

"Is there a chance there's a serious problem with Hermione?" Draco asked anxiously.

"With head injuries there's always a risk, but I don't believe that to be the case with Hermione. I'm betting the tests will prove she's perfectly fine, and will just suffer from excessive headaches. If that's the case we can provide a potion that will help deal with the pain, and of course there's a few natural methods to help relieve headaches. We can discuss all this tomorrow morning, but for now don't worry."

After giving Hermione a few potions and checking everything else was okay with his patient the healer left the couple alone again. By the time her check-up was over and she'd drowned her potions, Hermione was feeling sleepy. However she wasn't going to sleep without knowing Draco was going to get some rest so she made him enlarge the hospital bed so he could settle down beside her.

Hermione sighed in contentment as she snuggled next to her fiancé. "That's better. Now make sure you get some rest."

"With you in my arms, I will," Draco replied quietly.

Within five minutes the couple had drifted off to sleep, quite content in each other's arms.

* * *

It was quite early when Hermione awoke. Not wanting to wake Draco she kept still as her thoughts whirred in her mind. She was still dwelling on her missing engagement ring and what could have happened to it. Her finger felt bare without it and she desperately wanted it back.

Hermione knew she'd been wearing her ring when she arrived at The Burrow because since Draco had given it to her she hadn't taken it off. Whenever she'd gone to see her friends before she'd always cast a charm on her ring that hid it from sight, but she'd never taken it off. On Friday since she'd been planning on telling everyone she hadn't bothered to cast the spell and her ring was visible for all to see.

Hermione was also trying to work out who could have been responsible for her accident. She truly believed that none of her friends or any of the Weasleys would deliberately push her down the stairs, but she had to wonder if it was an accident that someone had covered up. Had something happened that resulted in her tumbling down the stairs and had whoever was present panicked and ran off making it look as though she was alone at the time of her fall? However if that was the case Hermione still didn't understand where her ring was. That was the big mystery, why would someone take her ring?

Not getting anywhere with her musings, Hermione turned her attention to her sleeping fiancé. She loved watching Draco sleep and she watched him for nearly twenty minutes before he opened his eyes and smiled at her. Hermione smiled back and the couple lay quietly talking for several minutes before Draco got up and changed the bed back to its normal size.

After Draco had used the bathroom to freshen up, he helped Hermione up so she could also use the bathroom. Not long after the pair had gotten up a mediwitch entered the room and checked Hermione over. She also mentioned the healer would be in shortly to begin his tests on Hermione.

"You are staying, aren't you?" Hermione checked with Draco as the mediwitch left the room. Despite the healer's reassurances that he didn't think there would be a serious problem she still wanted Draco with her in case the news was indeed bad.

"I'm not going anywhere," Draco reassured his fiancée as he settled down on a chair beside her bed.

Less than ten minutes later the door to the room opened again. Expecting the healer Hermione and Draco both looked up, but they found it was a mediwitch.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I have three people at reception asking to see Miss Granger," The mediwitch said. "They're not on the approved list, but they're insisting that Minister Shackelbolt assured them they could see Miss Granger."

"That'll be Potter, Weasley and She-Weasley," Draco said. "Do you want to see them this afternoon? I can go and talk to them and tell them to come back."

"Yes please," Hermione replied. "But don't cause trouble, Draco. I understand why you moved me and stopped people from seeing me, but I'm sure Harry, Ron and Ginny had nothing to do with my accident. They're my friends and I don't want there to be unnecessary problems between them and you."

"Don't worry, I'll be polite," Draco reassured Hermione as he stood up. "I'll just let them know that this morning isn't a good time and they can come back this afternoon. I was never being deliberately spiteful by not letting them see you, I just wanted to protect you."

"I know that," Hermione said, offering Draco a warm smile. "But I don't want to become alienated from my friends."

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen," Draco promised before he disappeared out of the door with the mediwitch.

The pair made their way back to the reception area of the private wing and while the mediwitch settled back at her desk Draco approached the scowling threesome that were standing nearby.

"Let's guess, you're not going to let us see her," Ron snarled before Draco even had a chance to open his mouth.

"Now Hermione's awake the decisions are all hers," Draco said, working hard to keep his temper in check and not snap back at the annoying redhead. "I wasn't being malicious keeping you from Hermione, I was looking out for her wellbeing."

"Kingsley explained why you blocked us from seeing her. And while I disagree with stopping all her friends from seeing her, I guess I can see you were just trying to do what you thought was right," Ginny admitted quietly, causing Harry and Ron to look at her as though she was crazy.

"So come on, what sort of excuse are you going to come up with for why we can't see Hermione?" Ron demanded, turning back to Draco.

"She'll be undergoing some tests this morning, so she doesn't have time for visitors," Draco answered.

"What sort of tests?" Harry asked anxiously. "Is she okay? Kingsley said she was awake, has anything happened?"

"The tests are just routine," Draco explained to the clearly worried trio. "The healer just wants to try and establish a bit more about her headaches. He's hoping to work out how often she's going to suffer from them and how bad they're going to be."

"That makes it sound as though headaches will be a part of her life from now on," Ginny said.

"They will," Draco replied with a nod. "Hopefully the healers can keep them under control so they won't affect her too much. But back to the reason you're here. Hermione would love to see you, but it's not possible this morning. If you come back this afternoon I'll make sure you're allowed in to visit."

"Really?" Ginny grinned widely. "We can see her this afternoon?"

"Yes, you can see her this afternoon."

"And maybe then we can get some answers," Ron muttered. "We can find out what exactly you've done to Hermione."

"What do you mean, I haven't done anything to Hermione," Draco frowned.

"You must have done something to get her believing you're together," Harry replied. "We don't trust you Malfoy, and we're going to save Hermione from you."

"Will you two stop it," Ginny hissed at her brother and her boyfriend. The way they were going they were going to anger Malfoy so much that he would end up revoking the offer to visit Hermione.

"I've done nothing untoward to get Hermione to be with me," Draco told the accusatory pair through clenched teeth. "Because she wants to see you, I'll let you in this afternoon but if you're going to keep accusing me of things, I'll bar you from seeing her again."

"Hermione won't let you do that," Ron protested. "She didn't have any say before, but now she's awake she won't let you dictate who she does or doesn't see."

"Do you honestly think she'll want to see you if all you're going to do is accuse me of allsorts?" Draco questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe you should think about that before you see her this afternoon."

Turning his back on the trio he made his way back to the front desk. As he spoke to the mediwitch, letting her know that the trio would be visiting that afternoon, he heard Ginny scolding her brother and boyfriend for causing problems. Hoping the pair would have calmed down and wouldn't be causing trouble by the time they saw Hermione, Draco headed back to be with his fiancée. He would have to wait and see what happened when Hermione's three friends visited later on, but right now his focus was on the tests she was about to undergo with the healer. Her health was more important than petty squabbles with Potter and Weasley.


	10. Chapter 9

Hermione and Draco were both relieved when Hermione's tests revealed there was nothing seriously wrong with her. Her healer did explain that he expected Hermione to suffer from a couple of headaches a month, but he was confident that things wouldn't be too bad with effective pain relief. He also discussed other methods of dealing with the headaches, such as herbal teas and ensuring that stress didn't play a major part in her life.

With the tests over and done with, Hermione had a small lunch before she tidied herself up for her friend's visits. According to Draco things had ran smoothly when he spoke to her friends that morning, but Hermione suspected something had happened between her friends and her fiancé. Draco definitely seemed on edge whenever she mentioned them visiting, she was just hoping that whatever had happened wasn't too serious.

Hermione was still no further forward with what had happened between Draco and her friends when a mediwitch poked her head around the door and informed her she had visitors. Hermione smiled widely as Ginny bounded into the room, followed by Harry and Ron.

"I'm so pleased you're okay," Ginny gushed, rushing over to Hermione and giving her a gentle hug.

"We're all pleased you're okay," Harry added as he embraced his friend.

"Not that anyone else can get in to see you," Ron muttered, shooting an accusing look at Draco who was sitting beside Hermione's bed.

"We can arrange visits with everyone over the next few days," Hermione said as she hugged Ron.

The healer had mentioned the possibility that she could be discharged soon, but until she knew for sure she wasn't going to mention the possibility. No doubt it would only lead to questions about where she was staying and it could possibly result in arguments breaking out and she didn't want her friends visits to be over before they'd even began.

"Speaking of visits, we were under the impression this would be a private visit," Ron huffed, glaring at the blond wizard who showed no signs of getting up and leaving the room.

"It's hardly public, Weasley," Draco retorted.

"It would be better if we were alone with our friend," Harry said pointedly. He wasn't sure how they were going to really get to the bottom of what was happening with Malfoy hanging around.

"Draco's staying," Hermione insisted as she reached out and grabbed her fiancé's hand. "You're going to have to get used to the fact he's a major part of my life."

"And I'm not going anywhere," Draco said, smiling at Hermione.

"Great, an afternoon with the ferret," Ron grumbled as he took a seat next to Hermione's bed alongside Harry and Ginny.

"If you don't like it, you know where the door is," Draco told the redhead.

"You wish," Ron snorted. "We're not going anywhere. Hermione's our friend and you can't stop us from seeing her now."

"Will you both stop it," Hermione scolded. "I don't want any fighting."

"Come on Hermione, you can't expect us to take the news you're with Malfoy without asking any questions," Harry protested.

"Questions weren't being asked, insults were being hurled," Hermione retorted. "I'm aware you're going to have lots of questions, but I won't stand for you insulting the man I love."

"But yet you're happy for him to insult us," Ron snapped.

"No-one is going to be insulting anyone," Hermione stated firmly. "Although if this bickering is going to keep up, I'll be sending you all away for causing me to get a headache."

Ginny shot both Harry and Ron a warning look, before turning her full attention to Hermione. "How are you feeling, Hermione? Malfoy said you were undergoing tests, is everything okay?"

"There's no serious damage," Hermione said as she explained about the headaches she would likely suffer from now on.

"That sucks," Harry said. "Can they not do something to make sure they don't happen?"

"There's not actually anything they can do," Hermione told her friends. "Headaches after a blow to the head are pretty common. Because it was such a severe blow I'll just be more receptive to them in the future. Luckily the healers can ensure that they never get too bad."

"I suppose it could be a lot worse. You have to look on the bright side," Ginny remarked.

"You do," Hermione agreed. She smiled at Ginny, pleased someone wasn't moping around. "A few headaches are a small price to pay for not sustaining any serious injuries."

"I guess you were lucky," Harry said thoughtfully. "You could have done yourself serious damage falling down the stairs. Especially since the stairs at The Burrow curve around and aren't straight."

"That's why I broke a few bones and had so much bruising," Hermione explained. "The healer was fully explaining everything this morning and he reckons the angle of the stairs contributed to the extent of my injuries."

"That'll be right, blame our stairs on making things worse," Ron grumbled.

"I wasn't meaning that Ron," Hermione said, sighing at her friend's defensive behaviour. "I was just pointing out that the design of the stairs makes falling down them more dangerous. I wasn't casting aspersions on your home."

"That's not how it sounded," Ron muttered.

"Don't be so stupid, Ron." Ginny shook her head at her brother. "You know Hermione wasn't meaning anything personal. It's very obvious to me that falling down our stairs would present different problems than falling down a straight set of stairs. The same as falling down stone stairs would be different from falling down wooden stairs."

"Exactly," Hermione agreed. "Now can we forget about stairs? I'm okay, and I don't want to discuss my accident."

"Accident? Does that mean you don't think we pushed you?" Ron asked, glaring at Draco before turning to Hermione.

"Of course I don't think any of you pushed me," Hermione said. "I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of things and there'll be a reasonable explanation."

"Maybe you should tell your fiancé that," Ron spat. "He's practically accusing our family of putting you in hospital."

"I wasn't accusing anyone," Draco said. "I was just being cautious. Even you have to admit something dodgy is going on regarding Hermione's missing ring."

"It is strange that's its missing, but that doesn't mean we had anything to do with it," Harry answered.

"Someone took it, and I intend to find out who," Draco replied. "I won't rest until we know the truth."

Before either Harry or Ron had the chance to reply there was a knocking on the door and a healer poked his head around the door. While Harry, Ron and Ginny thought the healer was Hermione's healer and had come to check on her both Draco and Hermione knew the healer was the one who'd been treating Snape.

"Sorry to disturb you, I was looking for Lucius," The healer said.

"He's at home," Draco told the healer. "Is there anything I can help with?"

"I've just had word from the Ministry and they've managed to analyse the venom from the snake that bit Mr Snape. They think they've stumbled upon an antidote, but it requires several ingredients from across the globe and some of those ingredients are expensive and hard to come by," The healer explained.

"Money isn't an issue," Draco said firmly. "Nor are resources. Do whatever you have to do get the ingredients for the antidote, we'll foot the bill."

"Are you sure you don't want to check with your father first?" The healer asked. "It will be very expensive and the antidote isn't guaranteed to work. We're only about eighty percent sure it's the right one."

"I don't care if there's only a tiny chance of saving him with the antidote, we're doing it. I want you to do everything in your power to save Severus. And as for money, I know father wants him better as much as I do so he'll happily pay anything that needs to be paid. However, if he won't foot the bill, I will. I guarantee whatever the cost, we'll pay it."

"I'll get right onto it," The healer said. "Hopefully we'll have some news within a few days."

"Thank you," Draco said to the healer before he exited the room.

"I didn't know Professor Snape was still alive," Ginny said once the healer had left the room. "I thought Madam Pomfrey said he was only just clinging onto life when she examined him. I got the impression he wouldn't last very long."

"The healers managed to stabilize him, but time's running out," Draco said quietly. "The longer he's in a coma the harder it will be to wake him. Hopefully this is the breakthrough we need and the antidote will save his life."

"He'll be okay, Draco," Hermione said reassuringly as she squeezed her fiancé's hand.

"I hope so," Draco sighed.

Harry and Ron watched the tender moment between their friend and the wizard they'd loathed since first year in silence. It was clear to them both that Malfoy was deeply affected by Snape's condition, and even though they didn't like the blond wizard they saw no reason to say anything and come across sounding spiteful and petty.

"How about you tell us how you got together," Ginny suggested as the silence started to drag on.

"And why you didn't tell us," Ron added.

"We got together in school, back in fourth year," Hermione explained, mentioning the project they had worked together on and the friendship that had formed as they completed the work. "And as for telling people, it just wasn't a good idea."

"By the time we got together and were secure enough to contemplate telling anyone, The Dark Lord was back," Draco said. "With him around it was too dangerous to let people know about us."

"What was so dangerous about telling us?" Harry asked Hermione. "It's not as if we would have gone running to Voldemort and told him all about it."

"I know you would never do anything like that, but telling anyone was a risk. If anyone knew word could have spread and before you know it the wrong people would have known," Hermione answered.

"If The Dark Lord had known about Hermione, she would have been in danger," Draco told the Gryffindor duo who still looked unimpressed that their friend had kept quiet about who she was dating. "He wouldn't have thought twice about using her against me, just like he did with my mother."

"I guess that makes sense," Harry admitted begrudgingly. He knew exactly how Voldemort had used Narcissa to control Draco and he shuddered to think that Hermione might have been targeted in the same way.

"But why did you never tell us after the final battle?" Ginny asked. "I would have thought that the pair of you would have been thrilled to be reunited."

"We were, but with everything that had happened we didn't want to appear selfish by celebrating our reunion," Hermione said. "We applied for our marriage licence and decided to wait until things settled down to tell people. Last week we got our licence through and since Fred's picking up and things are more settled we decided it was time to tell people about us."

"Only you had your accident before you could tell anyone," Ginny said.

Hermione nodded. "I wish it could have been different, I never wanted you to find out about Draco and I accidentally. I always planned on sitting you all down and explaining everything in a civil way."

"That probably would have been easier to digest," Harry admitted. "This whole thing has been rather shocking. Not only were we worried about you after your accident, but then you were mysteriously moved and we couldn't see you."

"Then Malfoy comes along and claims to be your fiancé," Ron added grumpily. "You can't blame us for being wary."

"I guess things haven't exactly been ideal," Hermione sighed, wishing things had gone as she'd planned. Her friends still might have taken the news badly, but at least she would have been able to tell them about Draco herself.

"Not that's he's helped matters," Ron spat, glaring at Draco for what seemed like the twentieth time that afternoon. "He shouldn't have kept us from seeing you, they're hardly the actions of someone trustworthy."

"I'm not going to apologise for moving Hermione and limiting her visitors," Draco said. "Something happened to her at The Burrow, and I wasn't taking any chances about who could have been involved. For all I know someone could have reacted badly to the news we were a couple and lashed out."

"None of the family know what happened to Hermione," Ron seethed. "Don't you dare go accusing us. More likely it was your family trying to pin the blame on us."

"Enough," Hermione called as she rubbed at her head that was starting to ache. "I don't want all this fighting, I want us all to get along."

"That's not possible as long as he's accusing my family of hurting you," Ron declared as he stood up. "I'm sorry Hermione, but I won't be visiting where he is again."

Giving Draco one final death glare, Ron turned around and stalked out of the room. Hermione watched him leave sadly and looking at the hurt expression on her face, Draco felt guilty. He hadn't meant to wind Ron up, but the redhead just grated on him and to be fair it had been Ron who had started things.

"Don't worry about Ron, he'll come round," Harry told a visibly upset Hermione.

"We'll talk to him and make him see sense," Ginny reassured her friend.

"What if he doesn't?" Hermione asked. "What if I've lost him?"

"Then he wasn't a very good friend in the first place," Draco muttered, unable to help himself from speaking.

"Malfoy's right," Harry said, grimacing at having to agree with the blond Slytherin. "If Ron values your friendship he'll come round. I have to admit, I'm not particularly sure about your choice of boyfriend, but I won't abandon you. You're my friend Hermione, and that won't change. Even if your taste in men leaves a lot to be desired."

"Thanks Harry." Hermione smiled at her friend as he stood up and gave her another hug as he prepared to leave.

"I don't think your taste in men is that bad," Ginny whispered to Hermione as she also gave her a hug. "Malfoy's pretty hot."

Hermione chuckled as Ginny stepped back and offered her a grin. Saying goodbye, and promising to be back to visit again soon, Harry and Ginny left in search of Ron. Once her friends had gone, Hermione turned to Draco who was sitting sheepishly at her bedside.

"I'm sorry," He announced before she had a chance to speak. "I didn't mean to cause trouble, but I wasn't going to apologise for moving you. We still don't have a clue what happened to you."

"I know it was Ron who started it," Hermione admitted. "And I don't expect you to apologise for moving me. It may have been slightly heavy handed, but I know you were just trying to do what was right for me."

"If it helps, I'll make more of an effort with Weasley next time I see him," Draco offered.

"If we see him again," Hermione sighed. She still wasn't sure if Ron would ever come round to the idea she was involved with Draco.

"If he doesn't come round, it's his loss," Draco told his fiancée. "But I'm sure he will. My guess is he cares about you more than he hates me."

As she settled down to have a nap, Hermione hoped that Draco was right and in the end things worked out with Ron. She was also hoping that Harry and Ginny could make him see sense and her friendship with Ron could be salvageable.


	11. Chapter 10

Draco sat across the room to Hermione, watching as the healer gave her another check-up. Even though he'd only mentioned discharging Hermione the previous day it would appear he was seriously considering doing it there and then.

"Well?" Hermione asked as the healer stepped away from her at the end of the exam. "Can I go home?"

"I see no reason why not, providing you rest and take your medication," The healer replied. "Of course I'll want to see you as an outpatient and you're to come back if your headaches increase in frequency or potency. We need to monitor them carefully to ensure we're not dealing with anything more serious. What I would like you to do is keep a record of when you get a headache, what you were doing when it started to come on, how long it lasts for and what pain relief you used. Hopefully we'll soon have a good picture of what we're dealing with."

"I can do all that," Hermione said with a smile. "When can I leave?"

"Are you that eager to get away?" The healer chuckled. "I'll sort the paperwork and you can be discharged later this morning."

"Thank you," Hermione said as the healer gathered his things and left the room.

"I can't believe you're coming home so soon," Draco said as he made his way back to Hermione's side and perched on the edge of her bed.

"We'll have to let the Weasleys know," Hermione said. "I don't want them turning up here and finding I've been discharged."

"I can send them an owl," Draco replied. "They can then come and see you once you're settled back at the penthouse. Unless you fancy going to stay at the manor, I know mother would love to have you."

"So she can fuss over me, I don't think so," Hermione retorted. "I'm just getting to know your mother, I don't need her fussing over me. That will be a sure fire way to ensure we rub each other up the wrong way. I would rather go back to the penthouse and your parents can visit as often as they want."

"Please don't say that to them, we'll never get rid of them," Draco joked.

"Speaking of parents, shouldn't you actually tell them I'm being released?" Hermione checked. Lucius and Narcissa had actually been visiting her when the healer arrived for her check-up so in order to give her some privacy they'd popped along the corridor to visit Severus.

"Yeah, will you be alright while I go and see them?" Draco asked as he jumped up.

"I'll be fine," Hermione reassured her fiancé. "And I really hope you're not going to start fussing over me either. I might need to rest but I'm not a total invalid."

"Point taken," Draco chuckled as he darted out of the room and made his way to where his parents were visiting his godfather.

Poking his head inside the room he found Lucius and Narcissa sitting chatting beside Severus's bedside. The pair seemed to be talking about the antidote that was being worked on and Lucius seemed pretty confident it would work. Draco knew his father was quite adept at potions and if he had faith in the antidote then there was good reason to be hopeful.

"How's Hermione?" Narcissa asked as Draco entered the room.

"She's being discharged." Draco grinned happily and his parents couldn't help but smile back at their son's obvious happiness. "The healer sorting the paperwork and we should be able to leave later this morning."

"That's excellent news," Lucius replied.

"Are the pair of you coming back to the manor, or are you going to the penthouse?" Narcissa asked. As much as she would love to have Draco and Hermione staying at the manor she fully expected they would choose to return to the penthouse.

"We're going to the penthouse," Draco answered. "It'll be easier for her friends to visit since they know she has a place in the city."

"I'm guessing they don't know it's a Malfoy penthouse though," Lucius chuckled. "They might not like that."

"Tough," Draco snorted. "The penthouse is home for now, and I really don't care what the Weasleys have to say about it."

"When are you telling them Hermione's being discharged?" Narcissa asked. "I'm guessing you'll want to tell them before one of them shows up here and finds she's gone. I wouldn't put it past that family to accuse us of kidnapping her."

"I was going to send an owl, but I think I might just go and see if anyone's in the hospital. Fred's still in here somewhere so chances are there's at least one Weasley in the building."

"You go and do that," Narcissa told her son. "Lucius can go and sit with Hermione, and I'll head to the penthouse to make sure it's all ready for you. I'll call at the manor and rope in one of the elves to make sure the cupboards are stocked and there's plenty of meals in the place."

"Thank you." Draco smiled appreciatively at his mother as the Malfoys said their goodbyes to an unconscious Severus and left his room.

While Narcissa headed straight off to get things sorted at the penthouse, Draco poked his head into Hermione's room and told her of his plans before leaving her with Lucius. Exiting the private wing of the hospital, Draco made his way to where he hoped Fred was still residing. If for any chance the redhead had been moved he would have to just send an owl to the family informing them of Hermione's discharge, but luckily he found that Fred was still where he'd been since his admittance into hospital.

After speaking with the mediwitch, Draco headed onto the ward where Fred was still recuperating. Draco easily found Fred's bed and made his way across to where the redhead was lying. At Fred's bedside was George and the twins both looked shocked to see Draco heading their way.

"Hi," Draco said hesitantly. "I've just came to pass along a message. Hermione's being discharged and I was wondering if you could make sure the rest of your family knows."

"Of course I'll let them know," George said. "And it's great news about Hermione."

"Yeah, lucky thing," Fred said. "I would love to be out of here."

"When will you be out?" Draco asked.

"Who knows?" Fred replied dejectedly. "I could be in here for weeks."

"I'm sorry, that must be rough," Draco said. "I know Hermione's itching to be home and she's only been here a few days."

"When she's feeling better, she'll have to come and see me," Fred said.

"I'm sure she will," Draco replied.

"I'm guessing the family will want to see Hermione when she's out," George said to Draco. "Will that be a problem?"

"No, they can visit tomorrow afternoon if they want," Draco answered. "By then Hermione should be settled in at home. Do you lot have the address of the penthouse?"

"Penthouse?" George raised his eyebrow in surprise. "I thought Hermione had gotten a small flat so she could have some privacy."

"She's living at one of our penthouses," Draco explained. "I think she said it was just a flat to avoid awkward questions. If you have some parchment handy, I can write the address down."

"I think there's some in the cupboard," Fred said as George stood up and started to root around on the cabinet beside his bed.

Opening the cupboard, George found some parchment and a quill. Handing them to Draco the blond wizard wrote down the address of the penthouse before handing it back to George.

"I'll make sure the floo network is open tomorrow afternoon," Draco told George.

"You are aware we could arrive all together, aren't you?" George checked. "I can try and limit the amount of people who come to see Hermione, but the whole family are eager to see her."

"That's okay," Draco replied. "It might be easier to deal with everyone at once."

"You'll regret saying that tomorrow," Fred chuckled. "The whole family together is quite a handful."

"I'm sure I can cope," Draco replied confidently, although both Fred and George could see he was slightly nervous at the prospect of facing the entire family.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to them," George offered with a smile. "You'll have to now you're with Hermione. She's family, therefore you will be family as well."

"I doubt that will happen," Draco snorted. "Your brother wasn't happy about my presence in Hermione's life, and I doubt the rest of the family will be much better."

"Just give them time," George advised. "They're just shocked at the minute, but I promise they will come round. Even Ron will calm down and realise that it's nothing to do with him who Hermione's involved with."

"I hope so," Draco sighed. "Hermione will be devastated if she loses her friends."

"She won't lose any true friends," Fred insisted. "If Ron won't come round, then he isn't the good friend he's supposed to be. But that won't happen, he may be stubborn but not even Ron is stupid enough to lose Hermione's friendship."

"Let's hope you're right," Draco said. "Anyway, I better get back to Hermione before her healer discharges her."

"Let her know we'll be there to see her tomorrow," George said. "And thanks for letting us know she's being discharged."

Draco said goodbye to the twins before turning around and heading back up to the private wing of the hospital. Things had actually ran smother than he'd expected and he'd actually enjoyed talking to the twins. It didn't look like they were going to be causing any problems and Draco was hoping he would even be able to forge a friendship with the twins.

When Draco arrived back in Hermione's room he informed her he'd spoken to the twins and chances were the Weasleys would be visiting them the following day. As Draco settled down beside Hermione as they waited for the healer to arrive, Lucius announced he would head off and ensure Narcissa wasn't going overboard at the penthouse.

Half an hour after Lucius had left, Hermione's healer arrived with the paperwork to discharge her. After checking her over one final time and making arrangements for an outpatient's appointment, the healer headed off to get Hermione's prescription while she got ready.

"I can't wait to get home," Hermione remarked as Draco helped her get dressed.

"I think you're making Fred jealous," Draco said with a chuckle. "He didn't seem happy that he'll be stuck in here for a while yet."

"Typical Fred." Hermione smiled affectionately as she thought about the lively wizard. "He'll be dying to be up and around and causing trouble with George."

"I'm sure he'll be up and about in no time," Draco said. "He seemed like a pretty resilient bloke."

"I'm sure you're right, and before long we'll have the Weasley twins back together again," Hermione said. "You're going to love them when they get going, they're hilarious."

"They do seem pretty easy going. They were both really nice to me when I was talking to them," Draco said. "It's nice to know that at least some Weasleys are going to give me a chance."

"The others will as well, it will just take time in some cases," Hermione reassured her fiancé as the door opened and the healer re-entered the room.

After getting Hermione sorted with her prescription, Draco picked up Hermione's bag and the couple slowly made their way out of her room. Luckily there was a floo network set up in the reception of the private wing so they didn't have to go all the way down the main reception area in order to leave the hospital.

"Can you manage on your own?" Draco asked Hermione as she took a handful of floo powder.

"I'll be fine," Hermione said as she gingerly stepped into the fire. They'd decided to floo as the healer had mentioned that apparition would hurt more on her delicate state, but she still expected being hurled around in a fire would hurt a bit as well.

"I'll give you plenty of time to get out at the other end before I come through," Draco told his fiancée, not wanting her to feel she had to rush out of the fireplace at the penthouse.

Hermione smiled at Draco before she threw the floo powder into the flames and called out the address of the penthouse. Draco waited almost five minutes before he grabbed some floo powder of his own and followed Hermione home.

When Draco arrived in the penthouse he found Narcissa settling Hermione down on the sofa. It was clear the trip had taken the small bit of energy his fiancée had as she was just letting Narcissa fuss over her without complaint. With a flick of his wand, Draco sent Hermione's bag to the bedroom to be unpacked later. He then moved over to the sofa and settled down next to his fiancée, who immediately leant into him and snuggled as close as she could get as her eyelids began to droop.

"We'll leave you to get settled in," Narcissa said to the couple. "Just let us know if you need anything. I've made sure the kitchen in fully stocked and there's a pile of meals already made, they just need heating up."

"Thank you, Narcissa," Hermione said sleepily.

"It's no bother, sweetheart," Narcissa replied, smiling warmly at Hermione. "You just concentrate on getting better and we'll see you tomorrow."

Draco thanked his parents for their help before they flooed back to the manor, leaving him and Hermione to settle themselves back in at the penthouse. Draco checked if Hermione wanted some lunch, but she declined and instead opted to have a nap. Instead of making Hermione move to the bedroom, Draco remained where he was and Hermione fell asleep wrapped in his embrace.


	12. Chapter 11

Hermione stood outside the back door of The Burrow taking calming breaths. She was about to break the news of her engagement to her friends, and she was incredibly nervous. In Hermione's opinion things could either go very badly or okay. She was praying that her friends would at least give her the chance to speak and they could learn to accept Draco, but she knew there was a chance they would react badly and refuse to listen to anything she had to say.

Plucking up the courage to go inside, Hermione opened the back door and stepped into the familiar kitchen. The kitchen was completely empty and standing in the doorway Hermione couldn't hear a sound throughout the house. It would appear as though everyone was out and Hermione was torn between being relieved or being annoyed. Part of her was pleased she could delay announcing her news, but part of her was keyed up to let everyone know how happy she was.

In case anyone was at home and she just hadn't spotted them, Hermione entered the house. As she searched the ground floor of The Burrow, Hermione twirled her engagement ring nervously around her finger. Several times it almost slid off her finger, but the constant movement kept it on her finger.

It soon became clear that there was no-one in and Hermione tried to decide whether to wait or come back later. She thought Harry and Ron had mentioned that would only be at the Ministry for the morning, but she knew they could easily get distracted and end up staying all day. And if the rest of the family were all busy there was a chance she could be alone for the remainder of the afternoon. Deciding to leave and come back later, Hermione turned and headed for the kitchen door.

Just as Hermione began to open the door she heard a thumping noise upstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps walking about. Knowing even if she shouted upstairs whoever was up there wasn't guaranteed of hearing, Hermione made her way over to the stairs and began to climb them. More than likely she would find Molly changing the beds or doing housework to get her mind off things.

Hermione had climbed up the first flights of stairs and she was faced with a door that was opening just as she emerged onto the landing. Just as the door swung open, revealing who she had heard, Hermione woke up with a start.

"Are you okay?"

Hermione blinked rapidly as she took in her surroundings. She wasn't in The Burrow, she was lying on the sofa in the penthouse. Draco had clearly just entered the room and he was looking at her in concern. She'd awoken the exact same way the previous afternoon when they're returned from the hospital, and again that morning in bed. Both times she'd been dreaming about the day of her accident, but that time was so much clearer than the previous two dreams.

"Hermione?" Draco prompted when his fiancée remained quiet.

"Sorry. I'm fine," Hermione said as she sat up.

"Were you dreaming about last Friday again?" Draco questioned as he took a seat next to her.

"Yes, it's becoming clearer," Hermione answered. When she'd first woke up after her accident she could remember visiting The Burrow and heading upstairs, but now she could remember all the details, except for who was behind the door.

"But you still don't know who you saw," Draco guessed.

Hermione shook her head in frustration. "No. It's so close Draco, I was almost there this time."

"Don't push and it'll come," Draco reassured his fiancé. "One time when you have this dream, you'll remember the rest of it."

"I do remember one more thing, it's about my ring," Hermione said. "I was nervous and I was constantly twirling it around my finger. There's a good chance it was loose when I fell and just slipped off my finger. Maybe it's lying around The Burrow somewhere."

"I've already told you, Kingsley tried summoning it when he was there and he didn't find it," Draco said gently. He knew Hermione didn't want to believe any of her friends had been responsible for her accident, but the missing ring was definitely suspicious. "If the ring was at The Burrow and someone found it, why haven't they said anything?"

"I don't know," Hermione whispered quietly. "I just don't want to believe any of them could be responsible for my accident."

"Maybe they're not, but someone is responsible for taking your ring and I want to know why they took it," Draco answered. "You can always double check if anyone has found a ring when the Weasleys arrive this afternoon. In fact they could be here any minute."

"I'll have to go and tidy up," Hermione said as Draco helped her to her feet. "If anyone arrives before I get back, be polite. I don't want any trouble, Draco."

"You'll not get any from me," Draco promised as Hermione made her way to the bedroom and adjoining bathroom.

By the time Hermione had used the bathroom and tided herself up a bit she could hear talking coming from the front room. However she doubted the voices belonged to Harry and the Weasleys as she could also hear Draco's voice and she doubted her fiancé would be chatting with the family of redhead's so easily. When she emerged from the bedroom she found she was right and the voices didn't belong to her friends, they belonged to Lucius and Narcissa.

"We came to see how you were feeling," Narcissa said as Hermione settled herself back down on the sofa. "Draco says you're expecting the Weasleys, we can go if it's going to cause problems."

"Stay," Hermione told her future parents-in-law. "Everyone is going to have to learn to get along, so we might as well start as we mean to go on."

"I promise we'll be on our best behaviour," Narcissa promised before shooting her husband a warning look to ensure he behaved himself.

Lucius begrudgingly promised he would behave just as the floo network lit up and Harry emerged into the front room. Seconds later Ginny and Ron followed him, before the rest of the family arrived. By the time everyone had arrived the only missing person was Fred, who was still in hospital and therefore unable to visit.

"Wow, this place is spectacular," George commented as the family took turns in hugging Hermione and letting her know how pleased they were she was alright. "What do you have to do to get a place like this?"

"Since it's a Malfoy property you have to marry a Malfoy," Draco told the redhead as they shook hands and exchanged friendly greetings.

"For a place like this I might just be tempted," George joked. "You should think yourself lucky that Hermione got to you first."

Totally taken aback by George's comment, Draco gaped at the grinning redhead. George burst out laughing at Draco's shocked expression, as did a few other members of the family that had overheard the conversation.

"You'll get used to George," Charlie offered a stunned Draco. "I would say he's unique, but he's got Fred and they're like two peas in a pod."

"A lively pod," Draco muttered.

"There's no point being boring," George replied with a shrug. "I leave that to other members of the family," He whispered, gesturing in Percy's direction.

Draco couldn't help but chuckle at George's dig at his brother. He could remember Percy from school and he didn't think he'd ever met anyone as pompous and serious as Percy had been. Clearly he hadn't lightened up any since school and was still rather boring.

"What are you lot sniggering at?" Hermione called, watching her fiancé, Charlie and George with a smile.

She was pleased that at least some of the Weasleys were making an effort with Draco and his family. After saying hello, Ron had settled down with a scowl on his face and Molly could barely disguise her disgust at finding Lucius and Narcissa in the penthouse. Luckily Arthur had nodded politely at Lucius, before Bill engaged her future father-in-law in conversation. Fleur meanwhile had started a conversation with Narcissa about France and a small wizarding village just outside Paris they both loved to visit.

"You should be grateful they're all getting along," Ginny said to Hermione as she perched on the sofa next to her friend.

"I am," Hermione told her friend. "But something tells me Draco could be led astray by the twins, and possibly even Charlie."

"He's a Slytherin, I'm sure he can hold his own with them," Harry chuckled from the other side of Hermione.

Hermione smiled up at her friend, pleased that he seemed to be willing to give Draco a chance. Ron was clearly still brooding over what had happened at the hospital, whereas it looked as though Harry was trying to put the past behind them and move on.

"Does anyone want any tea?" Hermione offered.

"Don't you dare get up, you're supposed to be resting," Draco insisted when it appeared that Hermione was going to get up. "I'll go and make the tea."

"Never thought I'd see the day a Malfoy made tea," George joked.

"You get to witness it first hand, come and help," Draco said.

"Honestly, fancy getting your guests to make their own tea. You need to work on your hosting skills," George joking grumbled as he followed Draco into the kitchen.

Five minutes later Draco and George had made the tea and everyone was settled down with a drink. Initially there was an awkward atmosphere in the room, but once Molly asked Hermione how she was doing things started to get better. Hermione explained about her headaches and that she needed to rest because she was still sore, but everyone was relieved to hear there would be no permanent damage due to her fall.

"How's your memory?" Bill asked. "Kingsley mentioned you can't remember your actual accident."

"I still can't," Hermione replied. "But the day is becoming clearer in my mind. In fact I think I might just have dropped my ring, and I was hoping someone would have found it."

"Kingsley tried summoning the ring and it wasn't in The Burrow," Arthur told Hermione. "I wish it was just lying about and someone had found it, but it's not there I'm afraid. Sorry, Hermione."

"It was worth a try," Hermione said, smiling at the older wizard. "I was just hoping it would turn up."

"We all are," Ron muttered. "Maybe then our family will stop being falsely accused."

"No-one's accusing anybody, Ron," Hermione said softly, wishing she hadn't mentioned her missing ring.

"It doesn't appear that way to us," Ron snapped.

"That's enough Ron," Arthur scolded his son. He'd spoken to Ron about behaving before they left to visit Hermione and he was annoyed that his son seemingly hadn't bothered to listen to him.

"Have you considered the ring was taken at the hospital?" Molly asked. "I'm sure plenty of staff at St Mungo's dealt with Hermione when she was first admitted."

"The director of the hospital is checking out that possibility," Lucius replied, much to everyone's shock. He hadn't even mentioned the internal investigation that had been launched at St Mungo's to his family so this was the first they were hearing about it.

"When did you arrange that?" Draco asked his father.

"Days ago," Lucius answered. "I want every possible scenario investigated. The ring may have disappeared from The Burrow, but it also may have disappeared from the hospital."

"Or is there any chance it's here?" Molly asked, looking around the vast penthouse. "Hermione, how sure are you that you even had your ring with you on Friday?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure I had my ring," Hermione answered. "I hadn't removed it since Draco gave it to me."

"Besides, we searched the penthouse on Monday when we found out Hermione was in hospital and her ring was missing," Draco added.

"It's a big place, you may have missed somewhere," Molly replied.

"We tried summoning it, but if that isn't good enough for you we can try again," Lucius snapped, pulling out his wand. Before anyone could argue with the blond wizard he waved his wand and summoned Hermione's ring. "Accio Hermione's engagement ring."

No-one really expected anything to happen so everyone was stunned when Hermione's ring suddenly floated out of the bag sitting at Fleur's feet and landed in Lucius's hand. Hermione watched in shock and as she did so a memory cleared in her head. Suddenly the door at the Burrow was opening and she could see who was behind the door.

"It was you," Hermione whispered, looking at Fleur. "You were the one upstairs."

Silence reigned for a minute before Fleur broke down in tears as people started demanding answers from her.

"Everyone shut up," Bill shouted. Once the room was silent again, he turned to his crying wife. "What's going on Fleur? Why do you have Hermione's ring?"

"I'm so sorry," Fleur sobbed. "This was never meant to happen."

"What was never meant to happen?" Bill asked. "What happened Fleur?"

With tear filled eyes Fleur looked up at Hermione, before shifting his focus away from the brunette witch. In a quiet voice she then began to explain what had happened the day of Hermione's accident.

* * *

**A/N – The next chapter is the explanation of what happened, and after that there's an epilogue. Then this story is finished and it's onto the next one. **

**I also want to think everyone for their amazing reviews and support for this story. As always, I appreciate the wonderful people on this site so much. It really does make sharing my stories worth it.**


	13. Chapter 12

"Hello," Fleur called entering The Burrow. "Is there anyone home?"

After leaving Bill and Charlie hard at work up at Hogwarts an hour earlier she'd decided to call in to The Burrow and see if she could get anything for Molly while she was at the shops. She knew Molly was so busy with Fred and other things that at the moment she didn't always have time to do the shopping. Fleur was thinking that even doing something small like buying some food would be something less for her mother-in-law to worry about.

A quick look around the ground floor revealed that there appeared to be no-one home. Even though Molly wasn't in, Fleur poked around in the kitchen and made a list of essentials she thought would come in handy. By the time she was finished Fleur needed to use the bathroom, so putting the shopping list in her bag she headed off upstairs.

While she was in the bathroom, Fleur took the time to brush her hair and freshen up her make-up. As she checked her make-up she dropped her make-up bag on the floor, but luckily the contents didn't spill out all over the place. Once she was satisfied she looked ready to be seen in public she exited the bathroom and almost jumped out of her skin when she found Hermione entering the hallway from the stairs.

"Sorry Fleur, I didn't mean to startle you," Hermione apologised. "I was just about to leave when I heard noises and realised someone was here."

"I'd just popped round to see if Molly needed anything at the shops," Fleur replied.

"I was looking for Harry and Ron," Hermione said. "I thought they were only working half a day today, so they might be back any minute."

"Are you going to wait?" Fleur asked.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't think so. I'll come back later."

As Hermione turned around to leave, Fleur suddenly spotted something shining on her left hand. Gasping in surprise she dropped her bag to the floor as she gently took hold of Hermione's hand and examined the gorgeous diamond ring she was wearing.

"I'm guessing this is what you're here to tell the family about," Fleur remarked, still examining the ring. "I can't believe you're engaged."

"This is what I want to tell people about," Hermione confirmed with a smile. "I was hoping to speak to Harry and Ron first, but I can easily tell everyone together."

"Who are you engaged to?" Fleur questioned. "This ring has to be worth a small fortune."

"I wouldn't know about that, it's a family heirloom," Hermione answered.

"Rich family," Fleur remarked. "So who is it? Who's the lucky guy?"

"Draco Malfoy," Hermione replied.

"Malfoy," Fleur repeated, dropping Hermione's hand as though she'd been burnt. "You're marrying a Malfoy. Not just any Malfoy, but the one responsible for my Bill's injuries."

"I know things haven't been great in the past, but none of you know the real Draco," Hermione said. "He was devastated when he discovered Greyback was at the school and had hurt someone. He never meant for Bill to be injured."

"He meant to least those Death Eaters into school," Fleur retorted. "He meant for Dumbledore to be killed. He's a Death Eater Hermione, and I can't believe you've been foolish enough to get sucked in by him."

"I haven't been sucked into anything," Hermione replied. "I know Draco, and I know why he did what he did. He's not a bad person Fleur, give him a chance and you'll see that."

"I will not give him a chance," Fleur insisted. "He is the reason my husband is scarred and I will never forgive him for that. He's bad news Hermione and if you have any sense you'll walk away before it's too late."

"Let's hope the rest of the family are more understanding than you," Hermione retorted, turning on her heel to leave.

Hermione had barely taken one step before her foot caught on Fleur's bag and she went stumbling forward. Fleur watched in horror as Hermione's momentum carried her towards the stairs and before she could regain her balance she went crashing down the spiral staircase head first.

"Hermione!" Fleur cried as she grabbed her bag and went rushing down the stairs after the brunette witch.

Fleur found Hermione lying unmoving at the bottom of the stairs. Throwing her bag down on the floor beside Hermione she didn't even bother to react when it snapped open and the contents went flying everywhere. Instead Fleur's concentration was all on Hermione and checking she was alright. Fleur quickly established that while Hermione was unconscious, she was breathing, which was a massive relief.

Standing up Fleur began to make her way towards the fire to call for help when she suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Hermione's prone figure. Hermione's fall had been a complete accident, but they had been arguing beforehand and once it became known who her fiancé was people might accuse her of pushing Hermione down the stairs. His dislike of Draco was well known within the family, and some of them might think she had lashed out when she found out who Hermione was marrying.

Suddenly remembering what Hermione had said about Harry and Ron possibly coming home, Fleur made a snap decision. She would leave and when Harry and Ron found Hermione it would be considered an accident. Then all she had to do was talk to Hermione when she woke up and convince her not to tell anyone about their disagreement.

After making the decision to leave, Fleur rushed back over to where Hermione lay and began hastily grabbing the stuff that had fallen from her bag. Without bothering to be neat and tidy, Fleur shoved everything back into her bag and checked there wasn't anything lying around. Once she was satisfied she had everything and there was no way anyone could know she'd been at The Burrow, Fleur whispered an apology to Hermione before fleeing the house and apparating back home to Shell Cottage.

* * *

Once Fleur had finished her story there was silence in the penthouse as everyone digested what had happened. Finally Draco broke the silence when he turned to Hermione and asked her if Fleur was telling the truth.

"I think so," Hermione replied. "It's still a bit fuzzy, but it seems right. I can't remember all the details just yet, but I know it was an accident. Fleur never touched me."

"Of course I didn't, I'm not a monster," Fleur whispered.

"You're hardly a saint though," Draco shot back. "You left Hermione at the bottom of the stairs without knowing when she would be found. She was there for hours, and you're just lucky she survived that long."

"I thought she would be found quicker," Fleur replied. "I kept waiting for someone to turn up and tell us about the accident, but no-one did until the Saturday morning. I felt so bad when I realised she'd been lying there for hours."

"But not bad enough to own up to what had happened," Draco said. "I understand that you hate me, but that was no reason to leave Hermione in danger."

"I never meant for Hermione to be there for so long. And I didn't see the point in owning up to being there when she fell," Fleur admitted. "Everyone thought it was an accident and I didn't want to cause trouble. Everything was fine until she was moved."

"Until we realised you'd stolen her ring you mean," Lucius snorted.

"I didn't steal it," Fleur argued. "Until Kingsley mentioned the missing ring, I had no idea it was missing."

"Then what was it doing in your bag?" Narcissa questioned.

"After Kingsley mentioned the ring, I thought about how my bag had spilled all over the place and how much of a rush I was in to pick everything up. I must have picked up Hermione's ring by mistake."

"And what, you thought you'd just return it today and no-one would notice," Lucius said in disbelief.

"I was going to try and leave it somewhere," Fleur admitted quietly. "I thought that if you had the ring back that nothing more would happen. I'm sorry Hermione, I never meant for all this to happen."

"I know," Hermione said. "I understand you had nothing to do with my fall. But I'm not sure I can forgive you for just leaving me. I could have been seriously hurt, and you just left me."

"I'm sorry, I just panicked," Fleur said.

"I appreciate that, but I would like you to leave now," Hermione said. She was still trying to get her head around what had happened, and having Fleur around wasn't helping.

Nodding in understanding, Fleur got up and made her way to the fire where she flooed home. Fleur had barely left the penthouse when Bill stood up to go after his wife.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I had no idea. I can't apologise enough for what Fleur did. It was unforgivable leaving you like that," Bill said. "And I also want to make it clear I don't share my wife's views about Draco," He added, looking at the blond wizard sitting beside Hermione. "I don't for one minute blame you for my injuries. I also want to say that I'm very happy for the pair of you."

"Thank you Bill," Hermione said, smiling softly at the older wizard before he disappeared after his wife.

"Is that it?" Lucius asked once Bill and Fleur had left the penthouse. "Are you not going to do anything?"

"Like what?" Hermione asked. "My fall was an accident and we've got my ring back. I don't want to cause any problems. Fleur's actions were extremely questionable, but not illegal. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to forgive her, but right now I just want to forget all about this and carry on with my life. We do have a wedding to plan, after all."

"Yeah we do," Draco grinned at Hermione. "And if you want to forget this ever happened, then we will."

"Thanks." Hermione leant over and briefly brushed her lips over Draco's, very aware that they had an audience.

"I want to apologise if anyone felt I was accusing them," Draco said to the Weasleys. "All I wanted was to find out what had happened to Hermione."

"It's okay," Molly said quietly. With the revelations about Fleur she'd lost a bit of her bluster and was looking a bit more sheepish. "We're sorry if you felt we weren't taking your worries seriously enough. I just didn't want to believe any of my family could be responsible for Hermione's fall."

"Technically no-one was," Hermione pointed out. "Fleur didn't cause my fall, she just failed to stick around and make sure I was alright."

"This is going to cause problems, isn't it?" Ginny sighed sadly. After what had happened she could see Hermione walking away from the family, and she really didn't want to lose her closest female friend.

"Only if we let it," Hermione replied. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to make things right with Fleur, but I'm hoping that doesn't mean I'll lose the rest of the family."

"Of course you won't lose us," George insisted.

"We fully understand if you don't want to be around Fleur, but the rest of us are still here for you," Charlie added with a bright smile.

"Aren't you heading back to Romania soon?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, but I expect you to keep in touch," Charlie replied. "You can even come and visit the sanctuary, I'm sure you'll love it."

"I don't want to cause any problems within the family," Hermione said. "I'll completely understand if you chose to side with Fleur."

"There'll be no siding with anyone," Arthur stated firmly. "Her reaction to your fall was very wrong, we all accept that, however I want no major disputes in the family. We understand that you and Fleur will never be the best of friends, and to be honest it would be perfectly understandable if you never forgave her for leaving you like that. Maybe one day things will get easier, but for now you don't have to see each other."

Hermione nodded in agreement while Lucius looked thoroughly baffled by the entire thing. He couldn't understand why Hermione was being so forgiving and acting as though nothing major had happened. Then again if she didn't have a forgiving nature he doubted she would have given him a chance to prove that Draco was his top priority and he'd left his dark past behind him.

"I think we should be leaving now," Molly announced as she stood up. "I'm so sorry Hermione."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Hermione said as she stood up and gently embraced the older woman.

"I'm sorry because I happen to share Fleur's views on your fiancé," Molly admitted quietly. "However, I promise to give him a chance and I won't cause any trouble."

"I appreciate that," Hermione replied. She wasn't in the slightest bit surprised that Molly agreed with Fleur, but she was pleased to know that the older witch would at least give Draco a chance.

With Molly's announcement about leaving the rest of the family said goodbye to Hermione and began to exit the penthouse. Harry, Ron and Ginny were the last to leave and the trio promised to visit soon before they also departed, leaving Hermione alone with her fiancé and her future parents-in-law.

"I think this is yours," Lucius said, holding out Hermione's ring. In all the explanations about what had happened, he still had hold of the ring.

"Thank you." Hermione took the ring off Lucius and smiled happily when she slid it back on her finger. "I've felt strange without it. Now, I feel complete again."

"Well this time try not to fiddle with it as much," Draco chuckled. "That way the magic keeping it fitted to your finger will remain in place."

"I only twirl it when I get nervous, and I don't think I've got anything to be nervous about in the foreseeable future," Hermione replied.

"What about the wedding?" Narcissa asked. "Weddings are nerve-wracking things, even when you know you're making the right decision and marrying the man you love."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see if nerves hit me on the big day," Hermione replied, smiling at the thought that very soon she'd be Draco's wife and they could begin their lives together.


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue.**

**Eight weeks later.**

"It feels good to be home," Hermione sighed, looking around the penthouse as she stepped from the floo network.

Hermione and Draco were returning off their honeymoon. The pair had been married two weeks previously in an intimate ceremony in front of their family and close friends. Hermione had invited all the Weasleys, and apart from Bill and Fleur they all attended and congratulated the couple with a smile. Hermione had actually invited Bill and Fleur, but Bill visited Hermione and explained that while both he and Fleur wished her and Draco all the best, Fleur just wasn't comfortable attending the wedding. Hermione had actually been extremely relieved at the news since she only invited Fleur as she wanted to invite Bill and it wouldn't have been right to invite him without inviting his wife.

"I miss Hawaii," Draco said, dropping the cases onto the floor before he sent them flying to the bedroom using magic.

"You're just missing the sun and sex," Hermione chuckled.

"Can you blame me, it's pouring outside," Draco said, gesturing to the rain that was pelting off the large window of the front room. "And we haven't had sex in over five hours, I think that's the longest we've gone for this past fortnight. Well, except from when we were sleeping."

"Thank god for sleep," Hermione muttered.

"If you're sick of me already, just say the word," Draco said, pulling Hermione into his arms.

"And what, you'll leave?" Hermione questioned with a chuckle. "It may have slipped your mind but we're stuck together now."

"Ah yes, I keep forgetting that we're married," Draco joked, taking hold of Hermione's hand and running his finger over her wedding band.

"I thought you may have forgotten since you've never once called me Mrs Malfoy this past fortnight," Hermione laughed. In actual fact Draco had called her little else than Mrs Malfoy and wife.

"Luckily you had something to remind me," Draco grinned.

Hermione laughed as she realised what Draco was referencing. On their first night on honeymoon, Hermione had changed into some underwear that Ginny had gotten her. The underwear was Slytherin green and silver and on the seat of the knickers were the words 'Mrs Malfoy'. Draco had loved having his name displayed across Hermione's backside, and it had gotten her wondering if she should have a small tattoo of his name in a heart somewhere discreet where no-one but him would see it.

"I guess we should unpack," Hermione said as she reluctantly stepped out of Draco's embrace.

"Is it worth it if we're thinking of heading to Australia?" Draco asked, following his wife as she headed into the bedroom.

During their honeymoon, when they weren't making love, the couple had spoken about the future. Draco was planning on joining his father in running the family business, whereas Hermione wasn't sure what she wanted to do. However, what she was sure of was the fact she wanted to find her parents and return their memories before she settled down to live her life. If she got a job before they travelled to Australia then it might end up being months before they could go and find her parents, and she'd already been without them for well over a year now. Therefore it was decided that once the couple had caught up with their friends and family they would head to Australia where they could search for Hermione's parents and hopefully restore their memories.

"We're not running off to Australia just yet," Hermione replied as she opened one of their bags and began to use magic to repack. "It'll still be a few weeks before we leave. Besides, we're going to want different clothes for Australia. I think I took a handful of outfits to Hawaii, it was mainly skimpy underwear and tiny bikinis."

"You didn't hear me complaining, did you?" Draco chuckled as he threw himself onto the bed and watched as Hermione began to sort through their luggage.

"Don't just lie there, find the presents we bought for people," Hermione said.

"I'm sure no-one's expecting anything," Draco told his wife as he summoned the presents to him and began sorting them. "We were on honeymoon, I think they'll understand that shopping wasn't our top priority."

"I know people won't be expecting anything, but I couldn't resist buying souvenirs," Hermione replied as she headed over to her dressing table and replaced her jewellery in her jewellery box.

As Hermione continued to unpack the couple carried on chatting. As they spoke it was decided that Hermione would send an owl to Harry and Ron to let them know they were back so they could arrange a time to meet up and catch up. Ginny would be back up at Hogwarts for her final year, but Hermione knew it would be easy to arrange a trip up to Hogsmeade. Hermione knew that Ginny would want to hear all about the honeymoon, while Harry and Ron would probably just be happy to have her back. Harry had accepted her marriage a lot easier than Ron, who still struggled to be polite to Draco, but on a whole their friendship was still going strong, much to Hermione's pleasure.

Draco also decided to send a message to Blaise, who as far as he knew was still in the country and was actually considering moving back home. Draco hoped his friend did move back to England as he'd thoroughly enjoyed having Blaise around in the weeks leading up to the wedding.

"What about the rest of the Weasleys?" Draco asked.

"I'll pop to The Burrow one afternoon. I can talk to Molly and leave their presents," Hermione answered. "Although I'm guessing you'll want to arrange a meeting with Fred and George, and I'm not sure but I think Charlie might still be around."

"Yeah, we can do that." Draco grinned at the prospect of spending time with the twins and Charlie. He liked all three Weasleys and they all got along well, in fact Blaise had taken a liking to the twins at the wedding and he suspected if his friend stuck around that another friendship would be blossoming.

"We can ask them round to the penthouse one afternoon," Hermione suggested.

"Maybe we can meet elsewhere," Draco said quickly. "Every time the twins are here they drop hints about wanting to move in. Did you hear Fred on his first visit, claiming that the penthouse would be the perfect place for his recuperation?"

"It is really good for when you're recovering and want plenty of rest," Hermione said. She was now fully recovered from her accident, although she got blinding headaches every few weeks and she found the best way to end them was to lie down in a quiet room for a few hours.

"Luckily Fred's fully recovered, therefore he doesn't need somewhere he can get rest," Draco retorted.

"You can send a message to the twins and Blaise, while I grab a quick shower." Hermione said to her husband. "I can then send a note to Harry and Ron while you shower and when you're finished we can go to the manor and see your parents."

"Or we can both send our notes now, have a long relaxing bath together and then go to the manor," Draco countered.

"I like your idea better," Hermione grinned.

After sending notes to their friends to let them know they were back, Hermione and Draco headed off to enjoy a nice relaxing bath. Of course the fact they were both naked led to a bit of fun and it was a good couple of hours before they emerged from the bathroom and began to get dressed.

Once they were dressed, Hermione grabbed the presents for Draco's parents and the couple flooed to the manor. Arriving at the manor the couple left the floo room and headed to the main living room that Lucius and Narcissa preferred to use. When they entered the room they found Lucius and Narcissa sitting on one of the large sofas while sitting opposite them, looking much better than two weeks ago, was Severus.

Severus had been revived by the antidote that the Ministry and St Mungo's had discovered while Hermione was in hospital. In the end it had cost several thousand galleons but neither Draco nor Lucius minded paying the price as it resulted in Severus waking up from his coma. After spending the first few weeks after waking up in hospital, Severus had been discharged. Since he still hadn't been well enough to be on his own Narcissa had insisted he come home with them and she'd been looking after him ever since.

After greeting everyone and spending a few moments catching up, Hermione handed out souvenirs before Narcissa disappeared to sort out some tea. Draco immediately questioned why she hadn't sent for a house elf to make the tea, but Lucius explained that since Severus was still recovering he took a shot of the antidote a couple of times a day and Narcissa was making sure it was properly administered.

"It sounds like you're being well taken care of," Draco remarked, laughing at his godfather.

"Aren't I just," Severus muttered. "I swear that woman will be the death of me. I know she means well, but she can't half fuss."

"Why do you think I refused to move into the manor after my accident?" Hermione chuckled. "She fussed enough and I wasn't even living under the same roof as her."

"I've told Lucius she needs someone else to focus her attentions on," Severus said. "I've suggested he gets Narcissa pregnant, but so far nothing's happened."

"I should think not," Draco spluttered. "They're far too old to be having more children."

"Your mother and I are in our prime," Lucius huffed, highly offended by being called old. "We could have another child if we wished. We're certainly getting enough practice in the art of making babies."

"Too much information," Draco groaned.

"Or you two could have a baby," Severus suggested with a wicked smirk. "I'm sure a grandchild would be a perfect candidate for Narcissa to fuss over."

"But that means she would fuss over me for nine months while I was pregnant," Hermione pointed out. "I don't think that will be happening any time soon."

"Looks like it's back over to you, Lucius," Severus said to his old friend. "You're going to have to find a way of keeping your wife from fussing over me before I go mad."

Lucius didn't get a chance to respond before Narcissa came bustling in with the tea. After placing the tray down on the table she picked up Severus's cup and left Lucius, Draco and Hermione to fend for themselves.

"I hope you're not tiring Severus out," Narcissa said as she handed Severus his tea. "He needs his rest."

"I'm fine, Narcissa," Severus said. "It's nice to have Draco and Hermione back. In fact I was just going to ask them about their future plans."

"Actually the first thing we're going to do is head to Australia to find my parents," Hermione said. She'd told the Malfoys what had happened with her parents in the run up to the wedding, so they knew the couple were in Australia with no memories of their daughter.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Lucius said. "When you first mentioned your parents before the wedding, I pulled a few strings with a couple of people I know in Australia. It took longer than I hoped it would, but last week they found your parents. I've also pulled some strings with a few experts in the field of memory charms and they're looking at your parents in hopes of restoring their memories."

"Are you saying, I've got my parents back?" Hermione asked, hardly able to believe her ears.

"Not yet," Lucius cautioned. "They're currently being treated in a medical facility in Sydney, and the experts are hopeful their memories will be resorted without causing them any damage. For now I think the best thing to do is let the experts do their work, but once they have their memories back we can arrange for you to go and visit them."

"Thank you so much, Lucius," Hermione gushed, jumping up and rushing over to embrace her surprised father-in-law. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"They're your family, and I know how important family is," Lucius said, awkwardly returning Hermione's hug before the young witch returned to her seat next to Draco.

Hermione turned to grin widely at Draco, who knew just how thrilled she was at the news her parents memories were in the process of being resorted. Draco knew just how much Hermione had missed her parents, and he also knew it would be a relief that they wouldn't have to undertake a search for them in Australia. Now they could stay at home and settle into their lives together and once Hermione's parents were back to normal they could go and visit them. But for now they could concentrate on their lives as the newly married Mr and Mrs Malfoy.

**The End.**

* * *

**A/N – I want to say a big thank you for everyone who reviewed/followed/favourited this story. I appreciate all the wonderful support I receive from people on this site.**

**I also just want to mention that I'm uploading my stories to AO3 (under the same name – cleotheo). I know some people prefer that site, so I'm also starting to use that site as well. At the minute I'm uploading my stories a couple a week, but my aim is to publish on both sites simultaneously. However, I am not abandoning fanfiction. This site is still the one I prefer (mainly due to the amazing support I've received from so many people on here), and my stories will continue to be uploaded on here. **

**Until next week, and a new story, thank you all so much for reading Under Suspicion. **


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